A WTO [World Trade Organization] dispute panel ruled this past November that the United States was in violation of its international trade obligations. In other words, Antigua can't be stopped by the United States. The WTO decision, in general terms, means that laws used by particular states to limit or forbid gambling are considered by the dispute panel as a violation of "market access" principles of the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).The article states that Antigua is developing internet gaming as a replacement for its banana industry (ironically destroyed when the US and Latin American countries won a trade dispute against EU tariffs favoring former Caribbean colonies). Utah is one of two states (the other is Hawaii) were all gambling is illegal. Antigua’s grievance to the WTO focuses on Utah’s law prohibiting internet gaming. A search of the internet located this related story (cited from Business Week).
I am a free trade supporter and a backer of NAFTA but this dispute is problematic for two reasons. The first is it threatens to override the power of states to regulate gambling. The second is the ability of one country to use “trade” as a cover to change another country’s vice laws (though the US may have erred if it included gambling as a recognized “trade”). If the US loses its appeal at the WTO can Utah make a case in Federal court that the Federal government does not have the right to violate the States right in its treaty negotiations?
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