Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
caribbeannetnews.com

US in trade dispute with Antigua
08-05-2006

GENEVA, Switzerland (UPI): The United States may be on the losing end of a trade dispute with the small Caribbean country of Antigua, whose entire population is only 69,000.

Antiguans are planning to ask the World Trade Organization, headquartered in Switzerland, to impose sanctions against the United States for anticompetitive behavior when it comes to gambling.

The matter involves a man named Jay Cohen who was jailed in the United States for running an Internet gambling site from Antigua, the Washington Post reports.

When federal prosecutors charged Cohen with violating a 1960s-era law forbidding the use of phone wires for gambling, he voluntarily returned to the United States thinking the law didn't apply to him.

He was subsequently convicted and sent to prison.

Soon after his conviction, Cohen learned the U.S. crackdown might be a violation of world trade rules and got Antigua to appeal to the WTO, which ruled in its favor.

Because the United States has ignored the ruling, Antiguans are planning to seek sanctions in the form of permission to copy and export U.S.-made DVDs, CDs and similar materials.