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Eu To Use Wto Online Gambling Fracas To Open Up U.s.
Trade
European Union asks for compensation from US for online
gambling ban
Just a few days before the June 22 World Trade Organisation deadline
for compensation claims against the United States in respect of
its protectionist stand on Internet gambling, the European Union
has given notice to the United States that it expects compensation.
Major EU region companies such as Sportingbet plc, Leisure and
Gaming plc, 888.com and Party Gaming had to exit the US market late
last year when Washington stopped U.S. banks and credit card companies
from processing payments to online gambling businesses. Companies
and investors lost billions in plunging revenues and share prices
as a consequence of losing half of the world's online gambling action,
estimated to be worth around $6 billion.
But an EU official said the concessions Europe was looking for
would likely be "commitments" to open up other trade sectors,
according to Associated Press reports from Geneva.
"We need new concessions that would be equal with the benefits
lost," the official told AP, speaking on condition of anonymity
because he is not authorised to be quoted by name in media reports.
Initial negotiations would focus on measuring the loss to European
businesses, he said, warning that talks would likely take some time.
Following a protracted dispute with Antigua and Barbuda, the World
Trade Organisation ruled last December that US law unfairly targeted
offshore casinos, telling the U.S. it could keep restrictions against
sport betting in place if they were also applied to American businesses
and notorious Internet gambling carve outs such as horse racing,
state lotteries and fantasy sports.
The EU - the world's largest consumer market - joins the tiny Caribbean
nation of Antigua and Barbuda in seeking compensation. The twin-island
nation argued that online gambling had provided income for hundreds
of its citizens and was helping to end its reliance on tourism,
which was hurt by a series of hurricanes in the late 1990s.
After losing the case, the U.S. announced that it would take the
unprecedented legal step of changing the international commitments
it made as part of a 1994 treaty regulating trade in services among
the 150 members of the WTO. As a result, the U.S. declined to challenge
the WTO ruling, because it says that its legal manoeuver effectively
ends the case.
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