WT/DS522/11  
 
4 April 2018  
(18-2046) Page: 1/2 
    
 
 
CANADA – MEASURES CONCERNING TRADE IN COMMERCIAL AIRCRAFT  
COMMUNICATION FROM T HE ANNEX V FACILITATOR  
The following communication, dated 4 April 2018,  from the  Annex V Facilitator , to the Chairperson 
of the Dispute Settlement Body, is circulated at the request of the Facilitator . 
 
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On 23 October 2017 the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) designated me as its representative to 
serve the function of facilitating the infor mation -gathering process in the context of the above -
mentioned dispute, pursuant to paragraph 4 of Annex V to the  Agreement on Subsidies and 
Countervailing Measures ( SCM Agreement ). According to this paragraph, "t he sole purpose of the 
representative shall  be to ensure the timely development of the information necessary to facilitate 
expeditious subsequent mul tilateral review of the dispute" .  
 
After consulting with the parties, I decided to submit this communication and inform the DSB that 
it was impossibl e, given the circumstances set out below, to fulfil the mandate of Facilitator.  
 
In a communication dated 24 October 2017 (WT/DS522/7), the respondent  informed the DSB that 
it had asked the Panel to rule that certain measures and the claims with regard to  serious 
prejudice under Articles 5(c), 6.3, 6.4 and 6.5 of the SCM Agreement  were outside of the Panel's 
terms of reference. The respondent also informed the DSB that it had requested that  "the Annex V 
process should not proceed until the Panel has made" such a ruling.  
 
In a communication to the DSB dated 25 October 2017  (WT/DS522/8 ), the complainant  opposed  
the request to suspend the Annex V procedures,  arguing inter alia, that accepting the respondent's  
request would "effectively nullify the Annex V process and the timetable expressly provided under 
the SCM Agreement, because any responding Member could then simply raise any DSU Article 6.2 
objection and derail the Annex V procedures, to the detr iment of the complaining Member" . The 
complainant  understood  the Annex V procedures to "run independently from the panel proceedings 
and [to be]  under the authority of the Facilitator alone ".  
 
It should be noted that the Panel was only composed  on 6 Febr uary 2018, i.e. more than 
three  months after the designation of t he Facilitator and the launch  of the Annex V procedure s and 
more time will be needed for the Panel to issue its preliminary ruling. By suspending the 
information -gathering process, I w ould have compromised the "timely development of the 
information" required by Paragraph 4 of Annex V. On the other hand, if I decline  to grant the 
request and the respondent maintains its position, the result contemplated in paragraph 4 cannot 
be achieved either, because a crucial part of the information "necessary to facilitate expeditious 
subsequent multilateral review of the dispute" will be missing.  
 
Paragraphs 6 to 8 of Annex V set out rules for dealing with the non-cooperation by a party during 
the information -gathering process, but those  rules only concern the panel process. However, t he 
issues raised by the parties in their communications to the DSB and the  impossibility to fulfil the 
objective set out in paragraph 4  explained above go the core of  the Annex V process and should 
therefore be brought to the attention of the DSB  at the same time as I transmit my report to the 
Panel.  
 WT/DS522/11  
 
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  Since the DSB designated me as the Facilitator for the aforementioned Annex V process, it should 
be informed about the reasons that impeded the fulfilment of my mandate prior to the circulation 
of the Final Report of the Panel.  
 
 
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