Home / Poker News August 2008 / The US Trade Representative’s office shrugs off EU concerns, postpones trade talks aimed at online gambling.
The US Trade Representative’s office shrugs off EU concerns, postpones trade talks aimed at online gambling.
Posted by: James Carter. - Mon, 2008-08-04 18:24
A little while ago I ran a news-feature detailing the talks that high ranking EU officials had planned on holding with their American counterparts, after the detailed explanation-seeking document they’d submitted to the US Trade Representative’s Office and other authorities was met with a very brief negative response.
Those talks were planned for early August, but the USTR has just made it clear it had no intentions of giving anybody any sort of explanations regarding the US’s unilateral withdrawal from WTO agreements concerning online gambling: it has short-handedly postponed the scheduled talks.
There seems to be a pattern emerging in the way the USTR handles all issues concerning gambling and online poker: just about a month ago talks with Antigua and Barbuda were tabled, as the island nation pursued its second damage seeking initiative. Their first one had been settled by the WTO, in a manner which proved unsatisfactory for Antiguans. The fact that other WTO countries like Canada and the EU have begun more aggressively pursuing their economic interests in regards to online gambling, has prompted Antigua and Barbuda to once again open up the process of requesting damages from the US, however the second time the two countries agreed to settle the issue without WTO arbitration.
Exactly what the USTR is pursuing by being this uncooperative is not clear. One thing is sure though, the pressure, both external and internal is increasing as Congress has recently requested details about how the USTR handled earlier agreements with the EU and Canada. Sure enough, that request has remained unanswered as well.
The UIGEA is not making things any easier on any of the parties concerned either. Its ambiguity a huge obstacle to overcome, as its implementation draws near, it becomes clearer and clearer that it will probably not survive in its present form.
Is the USTR waiting for the modification of the UIGEA? Is it trying to buy time by stalling? From a non-expert point of view it sure looks that way…
