WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States said Monday it would widen access to some of its services to compensate the European Union, Japan and Canada to settle a WTO dispute over the US ban on online gambling.
A spokeswoman for the US Trade Representative's office (USTR) confirmed an earlier report from a European official, and noted that Japan and Canada were also included in the agreement settling the World Trade Organization complaint.
"The agreement involves commitments to maintain our liberalized markets for warehousing services, technical testing services, research and development services and postal services relating to outbound international letters," said Gretchen Hamel, the USTR spokeswoman, in a statement.
"These commitments meet our WTO obligation ... to make a compensatory adjustment in our WTO services commitments."
Hamel said the deal allows for a 45-day period "in which the remaining claimants have a right to request arbitration. We will continue to discuss this matter with the other claimants to explain how our proposal is consistent with our WTO obligations."
The statement made no specific reference to Antigua and Barbuda, the small Caribbean state that is home to many online betting operations and which challenged the US ban at the Geneva-based WTO.
In May, the United States announced that it was withdrawing from promises it had under World Trade Organization service-sector arrangements affecting gambling and betting.
WTO rules allow this provided that compensatory measures are put in place so that the overall level of market access remains the same.
But the EU also said it would "continue to press for non-discriminatory treatment in US Internet gambling legislation."
EU trade spokesman Peter Power said: "While the US is free to decide how to best respond to legitimate public policy concerns relating to Internet gambling, discrimination against EU or other foreign companies should be avoided."
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