interesting read
http://www.tradediversion.net/archives/2007/08/rodrik_is_wrong.html
The WTO has ruled in favor of Antigua and Barbados again and again at the WTO, declaring that if the United States allows some forms of online gambling within its borders, then it must allow its citizens to gamble online across borders. This makes Dani Rodrik uncomfortable, but I don't understand why.
Rodrik argues that the WTO is infringing upon US domestic policy space by interpreting "recreational services" to include online gambling, when "U.S. did not originally intend to include online gambling when it opened its market to similar services." If that wasn't the intention, then the WTO ruling is a power grab by the international body:
http://www.tradediversion.net/archives/2007/08/rodrik_is_wrong.html
The WTO has ruled in favor of Antigua and Barbados again and again at the WTO, declaring that if the United States allows some forms of online gambling within its borders, then it must allow its citizens to gamble online across borders. This makes Dani Rodrik uncomfortable, but I don't understand why.
Rodrik argues that the WTO is infringing upon US domestic policy space by interpreting "recreational services" to include online gambling, when "U.S. did not originally intend to include online gambling when it opened its market to similar services." If that wasn't the intention, then the WTO ruling is a power grab by the international body:
So the question is precisely who gets allocated the residual rights [to policy-making] in this instance: the international trading regime, or the domestic polity? This leaves the WTO in a bind. For taking these rules at face value results in decisions such as these that are deeply counterintuitive. As the Harvard law professor Charles Nesson puts it, "people [at the WTO] must be scared out of their wits at the prospects of enforcing a ruling that would instantly galvanize public opinion in the United States against the W.T.O.”
To me, this is another example of how existing WTO practices are leading to the narrowing of policy space to the detriment of legitimacy (and economic logic). When the system serves to enforce new restrictions on domestic policy autonomy that would be wildly unpopular at home, it is time to rethink the system.
more on the link........
To me, this is another example of how existing WTO practices are leading to the narrowing of policy space to the detriment of legitimacy (and economic logic). When the system serves to enforce new restrictions on domestic policy autonomy that would be wildly unpopular at home, it is time to rethink the system.
more on the link........
