The Antigua legal team has posted some new documents related to the Article 22.6 arbitration in the Gambling dispute, including a written submission which, among other things, responds to some of the U.S. arguments. One important aspect of the parties' disagreement is the following. In arguing for a $500,000 figure for nullification or impairment, the U.S. relied on what it called the "WTO’s own published figures." Antigua responds by saying, in essence, that those figures are meaningless because they do not include gambling:
102. The basic problem with the alternative data sources used by the United States in its submission is that those sources do not take into account the Antiguan remote gambling and betting industry. The difficulty begins with the information provided by the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (the “ECCB”), which in fact appears to be the source for the data compiled both by the International Monetary Fund (the “IMF”)126 and by the WTO itself.127 However, the ECCB has expressly confirmed to Antigua128 that the data compiled by it does not include “revenues earned by operators who are licenced to engage in interactive wagering and gaming” for the same basic reasons mentioned by Antigua in the Methodology Paper–the operators do not report it.129
103. As a result, all of the alternative data relied upon or suggested by the United States in its submission to the Arbitrators is by and large completely useless in determining the level of nullification or impairment.130
So, as if the case were not difficult enough already, the task for the arbitrators is to quantify nullification or impairment with regard to trade that is not being reported.
