St John’s, July 6….. The Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ALP) has questioned the leadership capacity of Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer following his threat to apply sanctions against the United States.
The ALP said “Spencer’s statement smacks of instability and seriously brings into question his capacity to lead the management of our country’s affairs”.
Spencer told reporters yesterday (Monday) in Jamaica where CARICOM Heads of Government are holding a Conference that his UPP government would “signal to the WTO that we (the UPP government) wish to impose sanctions” on the US over a dispute on Internet Gaming services.
The ALP said: “Any sanctions that the UPP government applies to the US would seriously hurt the people of Antigua and Barbuda and would hardly affect US businesses or the US government”.
“Antigua and Barbuda is a tiny market representing less than 0.001% of US trade in goods and services. Sanctions against US goods and services in the form of higher taxes or duties would be of no consequence whatsoever to the US but it would increase the price of such goods to the local consumers, raising the cost of living even more”, the ALP statement declared.
“If Spencer plans to apply sanctions against American airlines and cruise ships coming into Antigua ports by raising their landing fees and port charges, the carriers will simply go elsewhere depleting even more the number of American tourists on whom our country’s tourism employers and workers depend”, the Antigua and Barbuda opposition party said.
“It may be that Spencer is really trying to get rid of the US base in Antigua as part of his commitment to the Bolivarian Socialist Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), but if he does so he will be putting many more Antiguans out of work and depriving the country of the revenue it earns in rent from the US government”.
The ALP said: “We remind that it was the Labour Party government that took the United States before the WTO over Internet gaming and won the case in March 2004. Since then, the entire matter has been incompetently handled by the UPP regime who had no idea of the outcome that the ALP had intended. In their usual arrogance, the UPP never sought to consult the Labour Party on the matter, and they bungled it”.
“The Labour Party holds to the view that Antigua and Barbuda should be compensated by the US for a breach of WTO rules which we established, but Spencer’s deranged idea of applying sanctions against the US would do nothing more than hurt the people of Antigua and Barbuda”.
The Antigua and Barbuda opposition party, which is awaiting a Court of Appeal hearing that could lead to by-elections in three constituencies, including one occupied by Spencer, and a change of government also warned that Spencer’s call for sanctions against the United States could worsen the situation for Internet Gaming Operators in Antigua who would be charged in the US if they land on US territory.
“This is yet another indication of the incompetence of the UPP regime and its unsound leader. The Labour Party will not allow Spencer’s unhinged policies to hurt the people of Antigua and Barbuda”.
