Fourteen.
Everyone has a story to tell about this number. It may be a date of their first pay check or your first promotion. Fourteen may also signify the number of failures and successes that a person may have encountered in his lifetime.
Antigua-licensed online gambling operators hold on dearly to this number. Fourteen is the number that reminds them of the years of US’ continued denial of their right to access the US market.
Tonight, the Democratic Institute told the story of the 14-year struggle of this Caribbean nation against the US hypocrisy on free trade.
The US has yet to pay a single dime of the annual $21 million that the World Trade Organization (WTO) awarded to Antigua. Last week, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne reiterated the country’s appeal for the US to honor the WTO rules during the United Nations General Assembly.
Unfortunately, Browne’s appeal has fallen on deaf ears.
The event ran in parallel with the World Trade Organization’s Public Forum 2017 in Geneva. Experts weighed in on the injustice that Antigua resident Calvin Ayre continue to experience from the US government during the debate. Despite the dismissal of all felony charges in 2012, the US government continues to punish Ayre by keeping the $67 million it seized from Bodog online gambling brand’s US customers.
