Saturday, February 02, 2013

Rooting For The Underdog

I know nothing about this topic except what I've read in this article, but it sounds believable enough that I'm compelled to root for the underdog.  Go Antigua!
For the rare cases where a member doesn't comply with a ruling, the WTO allows the victorious country to put domestic pressure on a non-compliant member by allowing the prevailing member to penalise an entirely "innocent" sector of the other member's economy.

In this instance the United States has never complied with the judgement in our favour. Further, years of patient negotiating has resulted in nothing but frustration. American officials have stepped up efforts to enforce the very laws ruled invalid by the WTO. The industry that once employed some 4,000 Antiguan people now employs just a couple of hundred...

Just as in the United States, in Antigua the government owes a duty to its citizens to protect and enforce their rights. We have reluctantly decided to suspend intellectual property rights protections for American firms and products. Hopefully, the remedy will work as designed, and American business interests can convince the Obama administration to follow international law.

For why should, for example, the U.S.motion picture industry suffer just so the federal government can continue to protect the monopolies of the big American gambling interests?

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