Antigua is making a last-ditch effort to resolve the country’s longstanding online gambling trade dispute with the United States.

On Thursday, the Antigua Observer reported that Antigua’s Minister of International Trade and Foreign Affairs Charles ‘Max’ Fernandez would travel to the US over the weekend to begin a new round of negotiations with the US Trade Representative (USTR) on Tuesday (28).

Fernandez declined to offer specifics on Antigua’s strategy for attempting to break the gridlock that has prevented the two sides from bringing closure to this dispute. However, Fernandez did say that he believed the parties were “at a stage now, where there is a serious commitment, or it seems to me, there’s a serious commitment on both sides to work as quickly as possible to settle the issue.”

Antigua has been locked in a bitter 12-year trade dispute with the US over the latter country’s refusal to allow Antigua-licensed online gambling operators access to the US market. In 2003, Antigua took its claim to the World Trade Organization (WTO), whose Dispute Resolution Body ultimately sided with Antigua.