. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/AB/WP/W/4 
10 July 2001 
 (01-6466) 
  
  
WORKING PROCEDURES FOR APPELLATE REVIEW
 
 
Communication from the Appellate Body  
   The following communication was sent by th e Chairman of the Appellate Body to the 
Chairman of the Dispute Settlement Body on 10 July  2001.  At the time, hard copies were sent to 
Members but the communication was not circulated as an official WTO document.  The communication is now being circulated in conjunctio n with the introduction by the Appellate Body of 
a new numbering system for documents relating to the  Working Procedures for Appellate Review .  
This numbering system is explained in a communica tion from the Chairman of the Appellate Body to 
the Chair of the Dispute Settlement Body da ted 7 October 2004, circulated as document 
WT/AB/WP/W/9.  
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 Article 17.9 of the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of 
Disputes  (the "DSU") provides: 
 
Working procedures shall be draw n up by the Appellate Body in 
consultation with the Chairman of the DSB and the Director-General, 
and communicated to the Members for their information. 
  I wish to bring to your attention an amendment to the  Working Procedures for Appellate 
Review  (the " Working Procedures ") which is currently being consid ered by the Appellate Body and 
in respect of which the Appellate Body wishes to in itiate the process of consultations provided for in 
Article 17.9 of the DSU.  
 Rule 5(2) of the  Working Procedures  states:  
The first Chairman of the Appellate Body shall have a term of office of 
two years.  Thereafter, the term of office of the Chairman shall be one year.  In order to ensure rotation of the Chairmanship, no Member shall 
serve as Chairman for more than one term consecutively. 
  Under the current rules, therefore, an Appe llate Body Member can only serve one consecutive 
term of one year as Chairman.    
 It may be useful to provide for more flexibility in this respect in the  Working Procedures  by 
giving the Appellate Body the possibility to extend  the term of its Chairman by one year.  The 
composition of both the Appellate Body and its Secretariat has recently been, and will in the near future continue to be, subject to considerable cha nge.  In order to ensure some continuity, it may be 
helpful to have a Chairman serving two consecutive terms of office of one year, rather than one.  
Furthermore, as of this year, and in line with his mandate under Rule 5(3) of the  Working 
Procedures , the Chairman is more directly involved in the management of the Appellate Body 
Secretariat.  The burden on the Chairman has thus  considerably increased.  In these circumstances, it WT/AB/WP/W/4 
Page 2  
 
is not certain that all Appellate Body Members ar e able to make themselves available to serve as 
Chairman thus reducing the pool of Members from wh ich the Chairman is to be selected.  For these 
reasons, the Appellate Body considers it useful to amend the  Working Procedures  to allow it to 
extend the term of its Chairman by one year.  
 Such amendment can be achieved by replacing Rule 5(2) of the  Working Procedures  by the 
following provision:    
The term of office of the Chairman of the Appellate Body shall be one year.  The Appellate Body Members may decide to extend the term of 
office of one year.  However, in  order to ensure rotation of the 
Chairmanship, no Member shall serve as Chairman for more than two consecutive terms of one year. 
 
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