Featuring Mark Mendel, Lead Counsel for Antigua and Barbuda in US-Gambling, John H. Jackson, Georgetown University Law Center, and Sallie James, Trade Policy Analyst, Cato Institute.
The dispute between the United States and the Caribbean island nation of Antigua and Barbuda over U.S. restrictions on Internet gambling has demonstrated one of the key benefits of the World Trade Organization: large and small nations alike have access to a legal system that protects their rights. But the United States has indicated that it does not intend to lift its restrictions on gambling over the Internet, in defiance of a series of clear rulings that those restrictions violate U.S. commitments to the WTO. At a time when global trade negotiations have stalled and the future of the WTO is in question, a failure to achieve resolution could deal a serious blow to the WTO’s credibility. The lead attorney for the Antiguan government and one of the world’s experts on WTO law will join a Cato trade expert to discuss this dispute and its importance for the international trading system.