Bitterness and anger are mounting in the Eastern Caribbean nation of Antigua over the US’s continued refusal to settle a two-decade-old trade dispute with the island over destroying its once-lucrative online gaming sector.
Back in 2003, Antigua took the mighty US to the Geneva, Switzerland-based World Trade Organization (WTO) and won a ruling that said that moves by the US to shut down the country’s then-booming online gaming industry were illegal and Washington should pay hundreds of millions in compensation. Americans owned some of the companies. Officials say they feared massive tax evasion would accrue via online gaming as it was difficult to control and monitor.
After numerous efforts to make the US compensate it for destroying what was then a key revenue component of the island’s economy, Antigua says it is more than pellucidly clear now that the US has no intention of abiding with the WTO ruling. It also feels that Washington is punishing it because this tiny federation with Barbuda had had the gall to take a superpower to a significant global dispute tribunal and had won, with orders to pay Antigua $21 million annually for losses.
And now that the political tables have turned in the White House with a Trump Administration in place, the last embers of hope for a settlement are dying, according to top government officials. This is even though Antigua has won at every stage of the dispute settlement process.
Lionel ”Max” Hurst, chief of staff to Prime Minister Gaston Browne, said this week that practically all hope is lost and that Antigua will never be compensated for losing its gaming industry. Authorities are putting the tab today at around $500 million.
Speaking on Observer Radio, Hurst said the cabinet believes that “another generation” must continue the battle for a settlement. “I think it will take us another generation almost to get that done. The United States is not moving. The United States is not as generous as it once was. We are moving forward. The United States is still our most important trading partner and we intend to continue to massage that relationship and that at some point the US will relent and provide us with the monies that they owe us,” he said.
At this point, agreement with the United States is beginning to fade as one administration leaves and another takes hold of the office of the president of the United States.
From a somewhat strange stance, the US has argued that Antigua’s demand for payment is extreme as it drags out the case to a point where Hurst fears that the current generation of politicians will die out or retire before peace is reached. A few years ago, the Antigua Observer newspaper summed up the situation aptly, saying a superpower is bullying the island.
“It is a classic case of ‘wrong and strong’ and ‘might is right.’ We have always thought that US$21 million per year in penalties was too low. Beyond the fact that we will likely never see that payment, the annual award is a mere fraction of what was taken from us,” the paper said.
“Our government has tried everything to coax our ally to live up to its obligations, but successive administrations have ignored our pleas or have been insulting with proposals for settlement. Even when we have bent over backward to get to a settlement, we have been slapped down like an insolent child. This absolute disdain demonstrated by the US started nearly immediately. It was probably brought on by a variety of factors, including the fact that we were so bold to even think about taking the United States to court over the matter. Then, to win an award over 40 times what they thought we deserved probably did not help.”
