March 30 - WTO Panel Ruling: U.S. Failed to Comply – Clears Way for Imposition of Trade Sanctions or Other Compensation

Ruling Illustrates How Fast-Tracked Trade Agreements Undermine Complex Areas of Domestic Policy

The World Trade Organization (WTO) enforcement panel ruling that the United States government failed to comply with a 2005 final WTO order to change certain laws related to the U.S. ban on Internet gambling proves the perils of the Fast Track system, Public Citizen said today.

Beyond the narrow issues under contention, the WTO Internet gambling ruling implicates large swaths of state and federal gambling law unrelated to online gaming as potential trade barriers, and a follow-on WTO challenge already has been threatened by the European Union.

“This ruling is just the latest example of how Fast Track roulette – where Congress gambles on providing a president blank-check authority to sign us on to outrageous trade deals – is always a losing game for the United States,” said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch division.

Read the full press release and case summary.

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