thanks clevfan for finding this
Reuters, 04.30.04, 3:39 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tiny Antigua and Barbuda have successfully challenged a U.S. ban on Internet gambling, diplomatic sources said Friday, dealing the United States another setback at the World Trade Organization.
A U.S. trade official, speaking on condition that she not be identified, confirmed that a WTO panel had issued a final report that was "largely unchanged" from its preliminary ruling against the U.S. ban one month ago.
"We intend to appeal and will argue vigorously that this deeply flawed panel report must be corrected by the (WTO) appellate body," the trade official said, echoing comments made last month by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick.
The final ruling, although expected, represented the third major trade case the United States has lost this week.
A WTO panel issued a preliminary ruling on Monday that U.S. cotton subsidies violated WTO rules, in a case that could embolden other countries to challenge the tens of billions of dollars the United States pays in farm subsidies each year.
Then on Thursday, a North American Free Trade Agreement panel ruled the United States failed to prove that imports of Canadian lumber threatened to injure U.S. timber companies -- undercutting a major basis for U.S. duties imposed on $6 billion worth of Canadian wood imported each year.
In the gambling case, the WTO panel determined that the United States' ban on Internet, telephone and other remote gambling services violated its WTO commitments, diplomatic sources in Geneva said.
The United States argued the gambling restrictions were legal under WTO rules that allow countries to make exceptions for laws to protect public morals and public order.
The panel agreed the U.S. prohibitions were designed to achieve those ends, the diplomatic sources said.
But it faulted the United States for not pursuing good faith negotiations with Antigua that might have identified WTO-consistent alternatives to the ban, the sources said.
Copyright 2004, Reuters News Service
Reuters, 04.30.04, 3:39 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tiny Antigua and Barbuda have successfully challenged a U.S. ban on Internet gambling, diplomatic sources said Friday, dealing the United States another setback at the World Trade Organization.
A U.S. trade official, speaking on condition that she not be identified, confirmed that a WTO panel had issued a final report that was "largely unchanged" from its preliminary ruling against the U.S. ban one month ago.
"We intend to appeal and will argue vigorously that this deeply flawed panel report must be corrected by the (WTO) appellate body," the trade official said, echoing comments made last month by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick.
The final ruling, although expected, represented the third major trade case the United States has lost this week.
A WTO panel issued a preliminary ruling on Monday that U.S. cotton subsidies violated WTO rules, in a case that could embolden other countries to challenge the tens of billions of dollars the United States pays in farm subsidies each year.
Then on Thursday, a North American Free Trade Agreement panel ruled the United States failed to prove that imports of Canadian lumber threatened to injure U.S. timber companies -- undercutting a major basis for U.S. duties imposed on $6 billion worth of Canadian wood imported each year.
In the gambling case, the WTO panel determined that the United States' ban on Internet, telephone and other remote gambling services violated its WTO commitments, diplomatic sources in Geneva said.
The United States argued the gambling restrictions were legal under WTO rules that allow countries to make exceptions for laws to protect public morals and public order.
The panel agreed the U.S. prohibitions were designed to achieve those ends, the diplomatic sources said.
But it faulted the United States for not pursuing good faith negotiations with Antigua that might have identified WTO-consistent alternatives to the ban, the sources said.
Copyright 2004, Reuters News Service
