KINGSTON, Jamaica: Director General of the WTO, Pascal Lamy, speaking to a closed session of a meeting with CARICOM Ministers of Trade, observed that the preservation of the rules-based multilateral trading system on which the WTO was based, will ensure that, over time, the US will move to implement the rulings and recommendations of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body (DSB).
Responding to a question put to him by Antigua and Barbuda's Minister of Finance and the Economy, Dr Errol Cort, who wanted to know how the WTO intends to ensure that the rights of its smallest members are treated in the same manner as its largest, Lamy said that it is in the best interest of the major trading nations of the world to ensure that the organs of the WTO are seen as fully functional and, in the case of its Dispute Settlement system, that its rulings and recommendations are respected and fully implemented.
Lamy also noted that, in his view -- and the historical record supports this -- the US has unfailingly implemented the rulings and recommendations of the DSB in all instances, even in those cases where such rulings have gone against it. This, he noted, was incumbent upon all WTO members if for no other reason but to ensure the integrity of the organization's institutions.
Meanwhile, Reuter’s news service has reported that the Chairman of the US Congress Financial Services Committee, Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank, plans to introduce a bill within the next two weeks to end a ban imposed last year on online gambling in the United States.
The bill in question, which would face an uphill battle, is intended to repeal the ban on the use of credit cards. According to the legislation that was signed into law by President Bush last year, credit card firms are forbidden from taking money for bets on online sites.
“We will be keeping a close watch on developments surrounding the anticipated introduction of the Frank Bill, on which we anticipate that there will be no major progress in the near term”, says Cort.
“However, my government is of the view that it is a step in the right direction, given that the current law has had a deleterious effect of online gaming everywhere to the point where the European Union's internal market chief, Charlie McCreevy, has hinted that he may challenge the ban at the WTO,” he added. |
