In an unusual ruling at the WTO, the Caribbean nation of Antigua on Friday won the right to violate copyright protections on goods like films and music from the US, an award worth up to US$21 million, as part of a dispute between the two countries over online gambling.
The award follows a WTO ruling that Washington had wrongly blocked online gaming operators on the island from the US market at the same time it allowed online wagering on horse racing.
Antigua and Barbuda had claimed damages of US$3.44 billion a year. That makes the relatively small amount awarded on Friday something of a setback for Antigua, which had been struggling to preserve its gambling industry. The US claimed that its behavior had caused US$500,000 damage to the Antiguan economy.
Yet the ruling is significant in that it grants a rare form of compensation: the right of one country, in this case Antigua, to violate intellectual property laws of another, the US, by allowing it to distribute copies of US music, movie and software products.
"That has only been done once before and is, I believe, a very potent weapon," said Mark Mendel, a lawyer representing Antigua, after the ruling. "I hope that the United States government will now see the wisdom in reaching some accommodation with Antigua over this dispute."
Though Antigua is best known for its beaches and tourist attractions, online casinos based there are vital to its economy, serving as its second-largest employer.
By pressing its claim, trade lawyers said, Antigua could set a precedent for other countries to sue the US for unfair trade practices, potentially opening the door to electronic piracy and other dubious practices around the world.
Still, implementation will prove difficult, the lawyers say.
"Even if Antigua goes ahead with an act of piracy or the refusal to allow the registration of a trademark, the question still remains of how much that act is worth," said Brendan McGivern, a trade lawyer with White & Case in Geneva. "The Antiguans could say that's worth US$50,000, and then the US might say that's worth US$5 million -- and I can tell you that the US is going to dog them on every step of the way."
The US has aggressively fought Antigua's claims.
A WTO panel first ruled against the US in 2004, and its appellate body upheld that decision a year later. In April 2005, the trade body gave the US a year to comply with its ruling, but that deadline passed with little more than a statement from Washington that it had reviewed its laws and decided it has been in compliance.
From the start, the US has asserted that it never intended to allow free, cross-border gambling or betting. Those activities are restricted in the US, though some form of gambling is legal in 48 of 50 states.
In May, the US announced that it was rewriting its trade rules to remove gambling services from the jurisdiction of the WTO.
Washington has already agreed on deals with the EU, Canada and Japan to change the treaty but it has yet to reach agreements with several other nations, including Antigua.
On Friday, the US trade representative issued a stern warning to Antigua to avoid acts of piracy, counterfeiting or violations of intellectual property while negotiations are under way.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary