TN/RL/W/268  
 
13 November 2015  
(15-6013)  Page: 1/4  
Negotiating Group on Rules  Original: English  
 
 TRANSPARENCY IN ANTI-DUMPING AND COUNTERVAILING DUTY  
PROCEEDINGS: THE ISSUE OF CONFIDENTIALITY 
MINISTERIAL DECISION OF XX DECEMBER 2015 
Proposal by the Russian Federation 
The following communication, dated 12 November 2015, is being circulated at the request of the 
Delegation of the Russian Federation. 
 
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Ministers, 
 
Having regard to the 2001 Doha Declaration, where we agreed to negotiations aimed at 
clarifying and improving disciplines under the Agr eements on Implementation of Article VI of the 
GATT 1994 and on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures.  
Acknowledging the importance of enhancing transparency of anti-dumping and 
countervailing duty proceedings while preserving their predictability for parties to such proceedings, as well as  for the authorities. 
 
Recognizing the case for further clarification of the provisions of the Agreements on 
Implementation of Article VI of the GATT 1994 an d on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures with 
a view to finding a balance between the need to  protect confidential information and ensuring 
transparency in reaching decisions, while pr oviding a timely and adequate opportunity for 
interested parties to defend their interests.  
In the light of experience and of the incr easing application of these instruments by 
Members, we accordingly: 
 
 Agree  to develop requirements for the content and format of the non-confidential summary 
that would permit a reasonable understanding of the substance of information submitted in 
confidence in anti-dumping and countervailing investigations.   
Direct  the Committee on Anti-Dumping Practices and the Committee on Subsidies and 
Countervailing Measures to draw up the above-mentioned requirements with a view for their adoption by the General Council within twelve months. 
 
Agree , before such requirements are adopted, in the implementation of the relevant 
requirements of the Agreements, to adhere, to the extent possible, to the Guidelines for the 
Provision of Confidential Information and Non-Confidential Summaries thereof in Anti-Dumping 
and Countervailing Duty Proceedings cont ained in the Annex to this document.   
  
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  ANNEX 
GUIDELINES FOR THE PROVISION OF CONFIDE NTIAL INFORMATION AND NON-CONFIDENTIAL 
SUMMARIES THEREOF IN ANTI-DUMPING AND COUNTERVAILING DUTY PROCEEDINGS 
A.  Types of confidential information 
 
(i) The following types of information can be treated by competent authorities as confidential: 
 
- information which is by nature confidential; 
- information which is expressly protected from pu blic disclosure by the domestic legislation of 
an importing Member; 
- business or trade secrets; 
- the following factual data: 
 production costs; 
 terms of sales; 
 prices of individual transactions (but not price components, dates or product 
description); 
 names of particular customers, distributors, suppliers (but not the destination of sales) 
or name of a person from whom the confidential information was received; 
 amount of dumping on individual sales or amount of benefit received by a 
person/entity; 
- any other information the disclosure of which would be of significant competitive advantage 
to a competitor or would cause a significantly adverse effect upon the person supplying the 
information or upon the person from whom that person acquired the information. 
 
(ii) The following types of information cannot be treated by competent authorities as 
confidential: 
 
- information that is publicly available, including laws, regulations, decrees or other official 
documents pertaining to a Member's domestic legal framework; 
- aggregated information (e.g. sales, production etc.) pertaining collectively to more than two 
companies which submitted confidential information, unless, as a rule, these two companies 
account for more than 80 per cent of the data in question or unless one company accounts 
for more than 60 per cent of the data in question; 
- factual information that is not designated as confidential information; 
- written arguments relating to the investigation that are not designated as confidential 
information. 
 
B.  "Good cause" requirement 
 Information of the types listed in Part A(i) of th ese guidelines can be treated as confidential by 
competent authorities only upon "good cause" shown in writing. 
 
The statement of "good cause" should be prov ided by the interested party submitting the 
confidential information along with the information for which it requests confidential treatment and 
should refer to all items that should be treated as confidential by the competent authority. 
 The requirement to show "good cause" shall be fulfilled when the disclosure of information: 
 
 would be of significant competitive advantage to a competitor of a party submitting the 
information; 
 would have a significantly adverse effect up on a person supplying the information or 
upon a person from whom that person acquired the information; 
 would cause substantial harm to the competitive position of the submitter; 
 could provide specific business information to the competitor that could be replicated, 
to the detriment of the submitter's competitive position. 
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  C.  Non-confidential summaries 
 
1. Non-confidential versions of documents shall be created from documents containing 
the information for which confidential treatment is requested. Such versions shall 
contain non-confidential summaries of information submitted in confidence. As closely 
as possible, their appearance should mirror the original confidential documents. 
 
2. Confidential information should be deleted from the original document item by item 
and replaced with a summary that ensures an understanding of substance of the information that was deleted. It is preferable to indicate where confidential information has been deleted. 
 
3. Information, which is not treated as confidential should be identically displayed in a 
confidential and non-confidential version of the submitted document. 
 
4. When confidential information concerns figures (e.g. in tables), indices or year-over-
year changes in percentage terms, inter alia , can be used to ensure an understanding 
of substance of the confidential information that they replace. 
 Example of information intended to be not disclosed:  
Volume of production 
 Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 
Volume of production 20,000 tonnes 30,000 tonnes 40,000 tonnes 
 
Non-confidential summaries could be as follows:  
Volume of production (index) 
 Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 
Volume of production 100 150 200 
 
or:  
Volume of production (Year-over-year changes in percentage terms) 
 Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 
Volume of production - +50% +33% 
 
If the confidential information is presented in tabl es, the interested party can provide trend lines or 
text summarizing the substance of data not disclosed.  
5. When the information concerns a single number, a percentage change, inter alia , can 
be applied to it to withhold the original number from public disclosure. 
 
Example of information intended to be not disclosed: 
 "The cost of production is 200 per tonne."  
Non confidential summaries could be as follows: 
 "The cost of production is 220 per tonne" (with the addition of a footnote saying: "actual numbers 
have been amended by a margin of maxi mum + 10% to protect confidentiality"). 
 
 When confidential information is provided in the form of text, it can, inter alia , be 
summarized, certain elements can be substituted with more general terms. 
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  Example:  "TRADING COMPANY told me that the prices of imports were 20% lower". 
 Non confidential summaries  could be as follows:   
 
"One of my customers told me that th e prices of imports were 20% lower". 
  
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