Posted on 03/26/2009 11:29:31 AM PDT by rgr
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A U.S. crackdown on European online gambling breaches World Trade Organization rules and would justify action at the World Trade Organization, the European Commission said on Thursday.
The European Union executive, which oversees trade policy for the 27-nation bloc, said its draft report found that such U.S.
laws hampered trade and thus were inconsistent with WTO rules but stressed it would seek a negotiated solution. "It is for the U.S. to decide how best to regulate Internet gambling in its market, but this must be done in a way that fully respects WTO obligations," EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton said in a statement.
(Excerpt) Read more at tech.yahoo.com ...
a package of 34 treaties, all of which were ratified by a show of hands — no recorded vote.
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a325b3f5d31.htm
What does a foreign brewer’s purchase of Anheuser Busch have to do with our Congress shutting down the U.S. internet gambling industry?
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American Soverignty is being lost
Don't see where the sovereignty is being "lost."
And only Lou Dobbs and Ron Paul can save us! LOL
GOD
Then show us where the US has won a decision in the WTO?
Good luck finding it....
Almost all WTO decisions are ruled against the US
When foreigners, not elected by any American, determine American law....that is loss of national soverignty.
Good luck finding it....
Anyone with a brain can do it.
Almost all WTO decisions are ruled against the US
Actually, about 50% go for, and 50% go against. It doesn't fit the protectionist meme . . . which is why the following is always a thread killer.
Click here.
You have a dispute with your neighbor concerning a tree growing on the property line. You both agree in advance to abide by the decision of an arbitrator in order to avoid going to court. Whose “sovereignty” has been violated?
That is an entirely accurate description of what happened, but not sufficiently precise.
The major actor here was Harry Reid, carrying water for the NV gaming interests, who fear “internet gambling” the way that the Devil fears a communion wafer.
Reid set up the legislation, passed it in his usual style, and hand-held the whole thing through Congress. Some of us (then living in NV) that this would come to pass — ie, the gaming servers would be drive off-shore (where we would lose the tax revenue and control) and attempts to shut them down off-shore for people using them on-shore would lead to a WTO or other international complaint.
Reid didn’t listen.
Personally, I am happy to see this end result. It is a nice, expensive lesson for Reid and his gaming backers.
I haven’t been following the case closely at all. I find myself correcting misconceptions about it more often than I care to, however.
No such thing.
This was an exercise in an industry trying to maintain a very tight monopoly - in this case, the companies that run Las Vegas gaming properties.
When Internet gaming (especially sports betting, poker and blackjack) first appeared, the servers were located in “legal gaming” states and localities here in the US - such as Nevada. They were subject to US and state laws on gambling and the gaming authority of the various states in which they operated.
The big casino operators in Vegas & Nevada had themselves a hissy fit. How were they going to continue to rake in money if you could gamble for REAL MONEY on the ‘net?
So they bent Harry Reid’s ear and Harry wrote up legislation banning the evil Internet Gambling monster that was going to addict your kids to gambling. Harry passed it with the usual sleight-of-hand tactics that Harry is so well known for. Most people inside NV thought that Harry was as full of crap as a Christmas goose when he carried this legislation for the bit casinos - it was so transparently an attempt to maintain an monopoly status that it wasn’t funny, even by Nevada standards.
So the ‘net gaming operators moved their servers to off-shore locales, and set up business again. They were FULLY in compliance with the US and off-shore laws.
Harry got his hand-sewn prayin’ britches into a knot and kept going after these companies, even after they were OUTSIDE US jurisdiction - because people INSIDE the US were still using these services and thereby (in Harry’s view) guilty of not giving their money to Las Vegas-based casinos and mobsters.
So you get what we have here: A complaint to the supra-national WTO for a ruling, and a ruling that is utterly and completely expected by anyone who has been following this charade since the beginning.
There is no comparison to a property dispute between two Americans, and a non-elected body of foreigners determining US laws.
Obviously, you have no comprehension or clue of what it means to have “national soverignty”. Proof that Free Trade and Globalism is nothing more than treason
WTO for a ruling, i did not vote for them
Just make your neighbor a foreigner in the example, then. Say, did you get a chance to look over that list of WTO cases the U.S. won? What do you think?
foreigners determining US laws,that the point
taxation without representation
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1590858026591557284&hl=en
There were many beginning with the GATT agreement in 1946. The latest was the Uruguay agreement in 1986. These agreements are not with the WTO though. They are multilateral treaties with many other countries. We adopted them and we are obliged to honor them.
Those who value Free Trade over national soverignty are committing treason.
Well fortunately the constitution defines treason differently.
If history is any guide then it is not free trade that poses the biggest threat to national survival but opposition to free trade. Just look at history's most strident examples of economic self-reliance: Nazi Germany and the USSR. Both of them were economic basket cases compared to the countries that practiced free trade.
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