Aggressive Hand: Antigua Seeks $3.4 Billion U.S. In Trade Sanctions Against USA

On Tuesday, the tiny nation of Antigua and Barbuda presented a request to the World Trade Organization for the right to levy commercial sanctions against the United States, totaling $3.4 billion US, for failure to co-operate with the WTO’s ruling declaring America’s ban on foreign Internet gaming as illegal.

While Washington acknowledges the WTO ruling, it has challenged Antigua’s right to impose sanctions under the original 1994 agreement, also saying the amount of damages was “patently excessive”, given that “the level sought by Antigua and Barbuda is several times higher than [their] annual gross domestic product of all goods and services” according to U.S. trade lawyer Juan Millan.

While the WTO has set up an arbitration panel to resolve the issue, other countries are opposing U.S. actions. Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, India, Macao, Japan and all 27 members of the European Union have joined Antigua in seeking compensation, but those are separate from Antigua and Barbuda’s ongoing WTO dispute.

While a WTO ruling in March stated that more