Everyone is going to have to wait a little longer to hear how much the United States have to pay in compensation to Antigua and Barbuda. The World Trade Organization arbitration panel, that is making the decision on the amount they owe, said that they need a little more time before they give their decision.
A representative for the U.S. Trade office named Gretchen Hamel had said that the report that would tell how much money the U.S. was delayed. The World Trade Organization has not yet made an announcement and no one knows when they will.
Antigua and Barbuda had filed a suit against the U.S. after they decided that they were going to back out of the online gambling market. They are asking for $3.44 billion in compensation. Another thing they want to have happen is that they don’t have to have copyrights for any music, movies and software that come from the United States.
Antigua and Barbuda have waited quite some time to hear how much money they were going to get from the United States for compensation. They will have to wait a little longer to hear from the World Trade Organization. Antigua and Barbuda filed their first claim in 2003 with the World Trade Organization against the United States because they said that the United States was not complying with the online gambling regulations that were set up by the World Trade Organization. After that the World Trade Organization did say that the United States was not complying with the trade regulations and that they had to change and comply with the rules.
The United States did not end up complying. Instead, in 2006, they passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which made online gambling pretty much illegal in the United States. They pretty much killed the online gambling market in the United States.
That is when the World Trade Organization finally ruled that the United States had not followed the any of the earlier rulings and that is when Antigua and Barbuda decided to file a claim to get compensation for the United States pulling out of the online gambling market. The United States after that was said decided to stop fighting it and just admit that they did not try to comply with the regulations.
After Antigua and Barbuda filed for compensation other countries decided to file for compensation from the United States. The European Union is also in talks with the United States over compensation. The negotiations were supposed to be done today and nothing has been said on what happened. If they could not come up with an agreement on how much money should be awarded, then it too could go to an arbitration panel.