Antigua And Barbuda Ready To Take US Copyrighted Material Over Online Poker Dispute: ReportCountry Prepared To Make 'Final Offer' To America |
|
Antigua and Barbuda has about had enough.
A dispute over online gaming between Antigua and Barbuda and the United States has new life after the island nation last month rejected another settlement offer from the US.
The decision to reject the offer came after there was word that it would be accepted early this year. According to a report from the Antigua Observer, the country is currently considering a counter-offer, which could come in just days.
The counter-offer reportedly will be a final one in the decade-long dispute. Back in 2003, the US government decided it didn’t want Americans to have access to online casinos based on the island nation. The move cost Antigua and Barbuda companies around $21 million a year in revenue. The country claimed that online gambling generated $3 billion annually in economic output.
The World Trade Organization eventually stepped in four years later, ruling that the US couldn’t restrict access to the sites. The US didn’t comply, and so a handful of years later the WTO said that Antigua and Barbuda could violate US digital copyrights in order to recoup the money.
Antigua and Barbuda never implemented what the WTO said it could do, as the countries have been in drawn-out negotiations ever since. The report said that if the final offer to the US isn’t accepted, Antigua and Barbuda will implement the sanctions.
It’s reportedly tired of diplomacy.
“We will never accept any one-sided agreement in which they treat us with contempt, and in which they fail to settle the issue in [a] meaningful manner. We’re hoping that as a result of that proposal we’ll be able to come to a mutually satisfactory agreement,” Prime Minister Gaston Browne reported said Thursday.
Because of the length of the dispute, Antigua and Barbuda reportedly want “as close as possible” to $200 million in a deal, which is roughly the amount of revenue that was lost. It’s not clear how far short the latest US offer was to that amount.
Copyright © 2001-2024
CardPlayer.com. All rights reserved.
