WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONTN/DS/W/46
11 February 2003
(03-0886)
Dispute Settlement Body
Special SessionOriginal:  English
FURTHER CONTRIBUTION OF THE UNITED STATES TO THE IMPROVEMENT
OF THE DISPUTE SETTLEMENT UNDERSTANDING OF
THE WTO RELATED TO TRANSPARENCY
Communication from the United States
The following communication, 10 February 2003, has been received from the Permanent
Mission of the United States.
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The United States has made proposals intended to help achieve a more open and transparent
dispute settlement process (TN/DS/W/13).  The Unit ed States is providing the following amendments
to the Dispute Settlement Understanding or decisi ons of the Dispute Settlement Body to put into
effect each element of those proposals.1
1. Open meetings
US proposal:
The DSU should provide that the public may observe all substantive panel, Appellate
Body and arbitration2 meetings with the parties except those portions dealing with
confidential information (such as business confidential information or law enforcement
methods).  The DSU could provide a basic set of procedures for this purpose with some
flexibility for the relevant body to refine these in light of the particular circumstances of a
specific proceeding.  For example, the procedures could provide a number of options forallowing the public to observe the meetings, such as broadcasting meetings to special viewing
facilities.
To reflect the proposal in the text of the DSU:
(a) Article 18 of the DSU is amended by inserting the following new paragraph 3:
                                                     
1 Additional conforming amendments, such as corrections to Article references, may be needed or
appropriate once the substantive text has been agreed upon.
2 This would include arbitration under Articles 21.3(c), 22.6, and 25 of the DSU.TN/DS/W/46
Page 2
“3. All substantive meetings with the parties of a panel, the Appellate Body, or an
arbitrator3 shall be open for the public to observe4, except for those portions dealing with
confidential information.”5
(b) Appendix 3 is amended by deleting paragraph 2.
Conforming changes to reflect the inclusion of arbitrators in Article 18:
(c) Article 18 is amended by deleting in the title “with the Panel or Appellate Body”.(d) Paragraph 1 of Article 18 is amended by inserting “, arbitrator,” after “panel” both places that
it occurs.
2. Timely Access to submissions
US proposal:
The DSU should provide that parties’ submissions and written versions of oral
statements in panel, Appellate Body, or arbitration proceedings are public, except thoseportions dealing with confidential information.
To help facilitate public access to these documents, the Secretariat should maintain
them in a central location that would be responsible for making these documents available to
the public.
To reflect the proposal:
(e) Paragraph 2 of Article 18 is amended to read as follows:
“2. A Member’s document6 provided to a panel, the Appellate  Body, or an arbitrator shall be
public, except for confidential information.  Nothing in  this Understanding shall preclude a party to a
dispute from disclosing statements of its own positions to the public.  A Member shall not disclose
another Member’s confidential information.  The Member submitting the confidential information
shall provide within 15 days of the request of another Member a non-confidential summary of theinformation.”
(f) Appendix 3 is amended by deleting paragraph 3 and renumbering the subsequent paragraphs
accordingly.
(g) A decision by the DSB:
                                                     
3 As used in this Article, the expression “arbitr ator” means any arbitrator under paragraph 3(c) of
Article 21, paragraph 6 of Article 22, or Article 25.  [ NOTE:  this list is intended to include all arbitration
proceedings under the DSU and the references would need  to be updated to reflect any amendments to the
DSU.]
4 The expression “observe” does not require physical presence in the meeting.
5 For purposes of this Article, the term “confidential information” shall mean certain factual
information designated as such by the party or third party to the dispute at the time that party or third partysubmitted the information.
6 The term “documents” does not include documents concerning an interim report or that are purely
administrative in nature.TN/DS/W/46
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“The Dispute Settlement Body directs the Secretariat to maintain the documents referenced in
paragraph 2 of Article 18 in a central location and make these documents available to the public, other
than confidential information.”
3. Timely Access to Final Reports
US proposal:
The WTO should make a final panel report available to WTO Members and the
public once it is issued to the parties, although only circulation would trigger the relevant
DSU deadlines.
Text to reflect the proposal:
(h) A decision by the DSB:
“A final report issued by a panel to the partie s shall be an unrestricted document, except for
any confidential information (as defined in Article 18).  Any interim report considered final by
operation of the last sentence of paragraph 2 of Article 15 shall be unrestricted when considered final.
“This decision is without prejudice to the practice concerning the date of circulation of the
report.”7
4. Amicus Curiae  Submissions
US proposal:
In light of the experience to date with am icus curiae submissions to panels and the
Appellate Body, Members may wish to consider whether it would be helpful to propose
guideline procedures for handling amicus curiae submissions to address those proceduralconcerns that have been raised by Members, panels and the Appellate Body.
The United States notes with interest the procedures proposed by the European Communities
for handling amicus curiae  submissions (TN/DS/W/1) and looks forward to working with the
European Communities and other Members on this issue.  The United States does not believe that anamendment to the Dispute Settlement Understanding is necessary for this purpose.
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7 That practice was established on a trial basis and under that practice a document is deemed to be
circulated on the “date printed on the WTO document to be circulated with the assurance of the Secretariat that
the date printed on the document was the date on which this document was effectively put in the pigeon holes of
delegations in all three working languages” (WT/DSB/M/2).