./.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/GC/W/106
13 October 1998
(98-3948)
General Council
14 October 1998Original:  English
TRANSPARENCY IN WTO WORK
Procedures for the Circulation and Derestriction of WTO Documents
Revised Proposals by the United States and Canada
In the light of discussions held with a large number of delegations, the United States and
Canada submit for General Council consideration the following elaborated proposal concerned with
the circulation of final reports of panels, as well as revised proposals on derestriction of certain WTO
documents.
1. Circulation of Information on Final Panel Reports
(a) Proposal
The General Council decides:
As soon as the “Findings and Conclusions” portion of a completed final panel report is
prepared in all three official languages of the WTO, a final report shall be issued to the parties to the
dispute and the “Findings and Conclusions” portion shall be circulated for information purposes as an
unrestricted document.  In addition, at the same time,  pending its translation into the other two official
languages of the WTO, the “Descriptive” portion of the final  report, shall be made available as an
unrestricted document in the original language of the panel report.  This decision is without prejudice
to the Dispute Settlement Understanding and the working practices concerning dispute settlement
procedures agreed by the Dispute Settlement Body and contained in document WT/DSB/6.
(b) Explanatory Comments
Nothing in this proposal affects the DSU - which limits its confidentiality considerations to
panel deliberations before the report is finalized and which does not address the issue of whether
information on final panel reports can be made available in the way we are seeking.  In addition, it
should be recalled that footnote 10 and paragraph (h) in the annex of the 1996 Decision(WT/L/160/Rev.1) only serve to make it possible to briefly restrict final panel reports which are
otherwise always treated as unrestricted documents once finalized.  This possibility has never been
invoked.
The proposed decision with respect to the circulation of the “Findings and Conclusions”
portion of a completed final panel report is intended to make available accurate information on the
outcome of a dispute settlement proceeding much more rapidly than is the case if WTO Members not
parties to the dispute and the general public need to await translation into all three WTO languages of
the often very lengthy “Descriptive” portion of the report.  The proposed decision does not imply
changes to the Dispute Settlement Understanding and, as stated, does not affect the official “date ofcirculation” of a panel report for DSU purposes which would remain the date on which the entire
report, including the “Descriptive” portion is “put in the pigeon holes of delegations in all three
working languages” (WT/DSB/6).WT/GC/W/106
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2. Derestriction Procedures for Certain WTO Documents
Taking into account comments made by a large number of delegations in the course of several
rounds of consultations and proposals tabled separately by other delegations, the delegations of theUnited States and Canada propose the following changes to the derestriction procedures agreed by the
General Council in 1996 (WT/L/160/Rev.1).
(a) Documents Submitted by Members
Recognizing that paragraph (g) of the Appe ndix to WT/L/160/Rev.1 already provides that
documents submitted by Members for circulation should normally be issued as unrestricted
documents, the General Council should decide to amend paragraph (a) of the Appendix to provide
that this shall also be the normal practice in the case of documents from Members circulated in the
“W” series.  Of course, in both cases, we should preserve the possibility for the Member making the
submission to make an exceptional request for re stricting the submission, but for a period not, in
principle,  to exceed six months.
(b) Minutes of Meetings
Paragraph (c) of the Appendix to WT/L/160/Rev.1 should be modified so as to provide that
minutes of meetings of all WTO bodies, including Summary Records of Sessions of the Ministerial
Conference and Secretariat-produced notes of discussions should be considered for derestriction three
months after their circulation in all three WTO languages.
(c) Secretariat Background Notes
Paragraph (a) of the Annex to the 1996 Decision should be modified to provide that
Secretariat background notes, except for those which purport to portray the views of WTO Members,
shall normally be circulated as unrestricted documents.  Recognizing that there may be exceptionalcases in which a WTO body, when requesting the Secretariat to prepare a background note, considers
it essential that the note be initially considered on a restricted basis, provisions should be made for
exceptional restriction of such notes, provided that a maximum time period (e.g. 6 months) should be
established for its automatic derestriction if there are no exceptional circumstances.
(d) Marking of Documents Initially Restricted
WTO documents initially issued as restricted documents, but subject to automatic
derestriction after a determined time period (e.g. minutes), should be clearly marked on the first page
of the document with the anticipated date of derestriction.  In the exceptional case where a document
is to remain restricted beyond the period foreseen, the Secretariat should issue a notice to this effect.
(e) Further Review of the Decision
As with the original 1996 Decision, the anticipated revised Decision should be reviewed
again after two years.
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