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Ball now in the World Trade Organisation's court
It's official - the Antiguans and the US trade negotiating team are unable to settle their differences on Internet gambling and have broken off talks.
A U.S. trade official confirmed the news this week, ending any hopes that there would be an amicable solution to the dispute over whether or not U.S. Internet gambling laws violated trade agreements.
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The two sides had suspended official litigation in the matter earlier this year to try to come to an agreement after a complaint lodged with the WTO by the Antiguan government the WTO ruled in 2005 that the laws violated global trade rules and gave the United States an April deadline to change them. The US appealed, but the WTO found that there was still unacceptable ambiguity in laws that ban some forms of Internet gambling but not others.
After the United States failed to make the deadline and refused to take any action on the ruling, the two nations came together to try to come up with a solution agreeable to both.
Harold Lovell, Antigua and Barbuda's minister of tourism, foreign affairs, and international transport and trade, said the country's delegation had presented a number of proposals to the United States, which were rejected, and the solutions the U.S. delegates offered weren't acceptable either.
"Our delegation presented a number of proposals for the U.S.'s consideration, but, sadly, they were not prepared to accept them," Lovell revealed. "What they offered us was not acceptable."
The Antiguan government will now notify the World Trade Organisation disputes panel that it has been unable to reach a settlement and plans to resume litigation against the United States. Resuming the litigation process allows the WTO to publicly release its panel ruling on the matter.
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