Re: US loses WTO ruling
 

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Unfortunately from what I've heard Antigua has said they will not seek the copyright penalty thing. If they did it would cause the US to rethink their attitude.

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What other penalties are viable?

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Pog, Antigua can't really do anything to hurt the US, but that isn't the reason why they are doing this... attacking the US in another way would not help them at all... they want to use the WTO decision to reopen the online gaming market, plain and simple.

One of the interesting side effects, however, may be... that if the US doesn't follow the WTO ruling, after all appeals are exhausted... why should anyone else follow the WTO... this has very broad implications...

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While I like being optimistic, I doubt the WTO will be affected much by the US not following the ruling in this case. The rest of the world has bigger fish to fry with us, mainly our farm subsidies.

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The WTO had no real teeth to do anything and really only acts as a intermediatary between countries. WTO rulings really only have some effect when the two countries negotiate and make concessions with each other.
Example US lowers import tariffs on chincese clothing and china raises foreign onwership percentage for domestic companies.
Unfortunately these little countries have no negotiating power with the US so it is unlikey that the US cares about the WTO decision.


Since 1995, more than 300 complaints have been filed through the WTO dispute settlement system. In most cases, the parties reach a mutually satisfactory solution in accordance with the WTO Agreements through consultations without having recourse to the panel and Appellate Body review. When the consultation process fails the resulting process of Panel reports and Appellate Body reports result in a removal or modification of the violating measures. In those cases where there is no removal or modification of the violating measures, the period of non-compliance tends to be very long and leads to core questions about the true intent of the DSU. In particular, was the DSU designed to ensure a legal process for the settlement of a dispute and to recommend a remedy to the offending violation but was not designed to secure compliance. http://www.bepress.com/gej/vol7/iss1/4/