WTO Antigua ruling delayed
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The WTO arbitration panel’s final ruling on the Antigua vs US case of internet gambling has been delayed. After the announcement was scheduled for November 30, it was delayed and is now expected to take place two weeks later, on December 14, 2007.
Although Antigua’s lawyer, Mark Mendel, stated, “I think it’s presenting them with more problems than they expected, although why they didn’t expect more problems I don’t understand,” it is in fact fairly common for the World Trade Organization to revise deadlines repeatedly due to scheduling conflicts with members of its committees and a desire to ensure that all parties involved are fully educated on the issues at hand.
Antigua is already preparing to have the WTO case arbitrated in its favor, probably for an amount somewhere in between Antigua’s stated loss of $3.4 billion and the US offer of $500,000. “We haven’t fully and completely flushed out precisely what we’re going to do or how we’re going to do it. There is no rush to do it. I think once we get it, it’ll be a pretty big weapon in our hands and we can take our time in deciding how to apply it,” said Mendel.
