We feel pretty confident about our case, to be honest. We really feel like we have the upper hand here," Mark Mendel, a private attorney representing Antigua, told Reuters ahead of an expected ruling by a WTO arbitration panel on Friday.
In an April 2005 ruling, the WTO found a U.S. law allowing only domestic companies to provide online horse-race gambling services discriminated against foreign companies.
The United States has argued Antigua is entitled to only $500,000 in compensation because of that ban.
But Antigua -- which built an online gambling industry to replace declining tourist revenues -- has asked permission to impose $3.44 billion a year worth of "cross-retaliation" on the United States.
It specifically wants permission to suspend copyright protections on American movies, music and software so its domestic manufacturers can export those products to the United States and potentially other markets, Mendel said.
"I think we provided plenty of proof to justify our figure ... We feel pretty confident it should be a high number," Mendel said. "I think there's no doubt that we're going to get the ability to cross-retaliate."