The government of Antigua has unveiled its new year’s resolution for 2017: stand up to economic bullies.

On Monday, Governor-General of Antigua and Barbuda Sir Rodney Williams (pictured) ushered in a new session of the nation’s parliament by delivering his office’s traditional Throne speech. Among the topics the Governor-General addressed was the country’s longstanding trade dispute with the United States over online gambling.

For over 12 years now, Antigua has been trying to get America to acknowledge World Trade Organization (WTO) rulings that found US trade policy re online gambling to be in violation of the General Agreement on Trade in Services. But the US has ignored Antigua, leading to the decimation of Antigua’s once thriving online gambling sector.

With the US unwilling to amend its protectionist trade policies, the WTO authorized Antigua to collect $21m in annual damages – a sum that has since grown to over $250m – by offering royalty-free downloads of US intellectual property. In November, Antigua informed the WTO that it was giving the US until the end of 2016 to make a good-faith counter offer or it would proceed with this download plan.