[greenyes] Free Trade and Public Morals

["Peter Anderson" <anderson@no.address>]

I have the greatest difficulty finding a consistent theoretical strand to 
undergird the Administration's particular version of free trade (remembering 
that there is no abstract definition, but rather only a political scupting 
of broad principles to achieve personal objectives).

If free trade ought not be defined to intrude into domestic judgments over 
public morals to protect us from sin, why ought it be permitted to trammel 
domestic views over environmental rules intended to protect us from 
pollutants?  I am an economist, and I understand the broad principles of 
free trade quite well, but I do not understand any rationale for this, 
anymore than for the US Trade Office's Boeing intervention I sent along last 
month.

                                                                             
                                Peter



November 11, 2004


WALL STREET JOURNAL
U.S. to Appeal
WTO Decision
On Web Gambling
By NEIL KING JR.
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
November 11, 2004; Page B5
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration dismissed as "deeply flawed" a World 
Trade Organization decision that the U.S. has no right to ban cross-border 
gambling on the Internet.
The WTO ruling, publicly released yesterday, favored the tiny Caribbean 
nation of Antigua and Barbuda in its fight against the U.S. over a 
43-year-old law that bans gambling payments across state lines. Antigua 
argued that the law violated a 1995 WTO agreement meant to open up parts of 
other countries' service sectors.
The U.S. immediately said it would appeal the decision, arguing that it set 
a new precedent for judicial activism at the WTO and threatened to insert 
the 148-nation trade body into domestic deliberations over laws affecting 
moral issues such as gambling and prostitution.
A senior U.S. trade official said the administration "fundamentally rejects" 
an assertion within the WTO ruling that countries don't have an explicit 
right to limit services affecting public morals.
The official added that even if the WTO ruling is upheld, it won't force any 
change in federal or state gambling rules. At most, Antigua would be allowed 
to impose punitive tariffs on U.S. exports to the twin-island nation of 
67,000 people. Antigua claims the industry employs about 3,000 people, but 
no figures exist on the amount of online gambling that flows through the 
islands.
The case is being closely watched around the world, not just because it 
involves the multibillion-dollar international gambling industry, but also 
because it's the first case that the WTO has taken up concerning Internet 
commerce. Many countries are skittish over what some see as the WTO's 
growing intrusiveness in areas of domestic law.
"...
U.S. trade officials were particularly alarmed over parts of the WTO ruling 
that asserted that member states had to consult with other countries before 
modifying laws that affect public morals.
"...

_________________________
Peter Anderson, President
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