US Reaches Several Settlements in Gambling Trade Dispute

[The Judge]

18 December 2007
GamingIntelligenceGroup.com

Yesterday it was announced that the European Commission had signed a bilateral agreement in Geneva with U.S. that will provide EU service suppliers with new trade opportunities in the U.S. postal and courier, research and development, storage and warehouse sectors as a compensation for the closing of the U.S. gambling market to foreign firms.

The EU stated they will continue to press for non discriminatory treatment in the U.S. internet gambling legislation.

Further it was also announced that the United States reached a compensation deal with Canada and Japan.

The European online gambling companies had claimed $100 billion in lost profit potential, however they now ended up with nothing and lost chance of getting back into the U.S. through a possible trade war forcing US to legalize online gambling.

The compensation value to EU was not declared, however it was expected to be lower than the $100 billion claim that was made by the online gambling companies.

Regarding India, Costa Rica and Macao the United States now hopes to convince them to accept similar deals to settle the trade dispute. However those countries still have the option to ask for World Trade Organization arbitration over the next 45 days, according to a statement by U.S. spokeswoman Gretchen Hamel from United States Trade Representative.

Yet to be determined is the trade dispute with Antigua and Barbuda, where the island has asked permission to impose $3.44 billion a year worth of “cross-retaliation” on the United States. Antigua and Barbuda wants the WTO's authorization to suspend copyright protections on American movies, music and software so its domestic manufacturers can export those products to the United States and potentially other markets. At the same time United States says Antigua is entitled to only $500,000 in damages in the dispute.

The WTO was supposed to come out with its decision of the amount of retaliation that Antigua and Barbuda can enforce on United States last Friday, however delayed the decision. Yesterday the attorney representing Antigua and Barbuda, Mark Mendel, said that he still hoped for a ruling before the WTO closes down next week for the Christmas holidays.

[The Loner]

thanks for info/link gregg