Costa Rica Reaches Deal
With U.S. In Gambling
Dispute
GENEVA - Reuters - Costa
Rica has reached an
agreement with the
United States in a
dispute about online
gambling, trade
officials said on
Thursday.
As a result Costa Rica
has dropped its request
for arbitration at the
World Trade Organisation
, they said.
The dispute arose after
Washington announced in
May last year that it
would withdraw gambling
from services it had
opened up under a 1994
world trade deal.
Under WTO rules the
United States then had
to offer access in other
services to any of the
WTO's 151 members who
wanted it.
The European Union has
said it reached
agreement with the
United States over
access to postal and
courier, research and
development, and storage
and warehouse services
in compensation.
Officials said the Costa
Rica deal was similar to
that with the European
Union.
Washington has reached
similar deals with Japan
and Canada.
However the European
Union said on Monday it
was investigating
whether U.S.
prosecutions of foreign
online gambling
companies were
discriminatory. That
could lead to a trade
dispute at the WTO.
European online gambling
companies such as
PartyGaming and bwin
Interactive
Entertainment complained
in December last year
that the United States
had singled out foreign
online gambling
companies when it
introduced measures to
cut off their access to
its gaming market.
The U.S. Justice
Department is still
investigating the
activities of EU
companies before it
introduced those
measures.
The EU companies say the
United States has
allowed U.S. firms
offering Internet horse
race betting to continue
operating.
Antigua has also sought
arbitration in its
request for compensation
from the United States,
while Macao has allowed
its claim to lapse.
It was a ruling in a WTO
dispute brought by
Antigua for being shut
out of the U.S. gambling
market that prompted
Washington to withdraw
gambling from its WTO
commitments.
In a final ruling on
that case the WTO ruled
in December that Antigua
was entitled to
compensation of $21
million a year -- far
less than it had sought,
but controversially it
was given the right to
levy the sanctions on
U.S. intellectual
property by lifting
copyright on U.S.
products such as
software or DVDs. |
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