C.E. Petit at Scrivener’s Error sends an alert to a story in today’s Washington Post that talks about Antigua’s WTO complaint about US efforts to regulate online gambling. SE, excerpting the Post:
The WTO cannot force a country to do anything. Even if found guilty, a country can refuse to change its trade practices. The WTO largely enforces its rulings by giving the victorious country the right to impose punitive duties on the loser’s products. That enforcement mechanism works for big, rich countries such as the United States because other nations fear losing the vast U.S. market. But Antigua’s economy is so tiny that few U.S. companies would notice. . . . So the Antiguans plan to ask the WTO for the right to impose sanctions that would hurt — namely, permission to copy and export U.S.-made DVDs, CDs and similar material. Hollywood is not amused.