WT/DS537/13  
 
17 June 2019 
(19-4092) Page: 1/3 
  Original: English  
 
CANADA – MEASURES GO VERNING THE SALE OF WINE  
COMMUNICATION FROM T HE PANEL  
The following communication, dated 12 June  2019, was received from the Chairperson of the Panel 
with the request that it be circulated to the Dispute Settlement Body.  
 
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Paragraph 2(5) of the Working Procedures for the Panel proceedings in the dispute Canada – 
Measures Governing the Sale of Wine (DS537) provides:  
 
The Panel shall circulate its Working Procedures and timetable, and any 
amendments thereto,  to WTO Members through the DS document series 
for this dispute.  
Accordingly, p lease find enclosed the a dditional Working Procedures on business confidential 
information adopted by the Panel today.   
 
I would be grateful if you would circulate this document  to the DSB.  
  WT/DS537/13  
 
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ADDITIONAL WORKING P ROCEDURES FOR THE PA NEL CONCERNING BUSINESS  CONFIDENTIAL 
INFORMATION (BCI)  
Adopted on 12 June 2019  
 
1. These procedures, adopted pursuant to paragraph 2(4) of the Panel’s working procedures, are 
additional to the general protection of confidential information set forth in paragraph 2(1) of the 
Panel's working procedures. These procedures apply to business confidential information (BCI) 
submitted in the course of the present Panel proceedings.  
2. For the purposes of th ese proceedings, BCI is defined as any information that has been 
designated as such by a party or a third party submitting the information to the Panel. The parties 
or third parties shall only designate as BCI information that is not available in the publi c domain, the 
release of which could cause serious harm to the interests of the originator(s) of the information. In 
addition, these procedures cease to apply to any BCI if the entity that provided the information 
makes the information publicly available o r agrees in writing to make the information publicly 
available.  
3. No person may have access to BCI except a member of the WTO Secretariat assigned to work 
on DS537 dispute proceedings or the Panel in the DS537 dispute proceedings, an employee of a 
party or t hird party, or an outside advisor to a party or third party for the purposes of this dispute. 
However, an outside advisor to a party or third party is not permitted access to BCI if that advisor 
is an officer or employee of an enterprise engaged in the pro duction, sale, export, or import of 
products that are the subject of this dispute, or an officer or employee of an association of such 
enterprises.  
4. A person having access to BCI shall treat it as confidential, i.e. shall not disclose that 
information other  than to persons authorized to have access to it pursuant to these procedures. 
Each party and third party is responsible for ensuring that its employees and/or outside advisors 
comply with these procedures. BCI obtained under these procedures may be used o nly for the 
purpose of providing information and argumentation in this dispute and for no other purpose. All 
documents and electronic storage media containing BCI shall be stored in such a manner as to 
prevent unauthorized access to such information. Third  parties' access to BCI shall be subject to the 
terms of these procedures.  
5. A party or third party submitting BCI shall mark the cover and/or first page of the document 
containing BCI, and each page of the document, to indicate the presence of such informat ion. The 
specific information in question shall be placed between double brackets, as follows: [[xx,xxx.xx]]. 
The first page or cover of the document shall state "Contains Business Confidential Information on 
pages xxxxxx", and each page of the document sh all contain the notice "Contains Business 
Confidential Information" at the top of the page. A party submitting BCI in the form of, or as part 
of, an Exhibit shall, in addition to the above, so indicate by putting "BCI" next to the exhibit number 
(e.g. Exhi bit CAN -1 (BCI)).  
6. Where BCI is submitted in electronic format, the file name shall include the terms "Business 
Confidential Information" or "BCI". In addition, where applicable, the label of the storage medium 
shall be clearly marked with the statement "Bu siness Confidential Information" or "BCI".  
7. Where a party submits a document containing BCI to the Panel, the other party or third party 
referring to that BCI in its documents, including written submissions and oral statements, shall 
clearly identify all su ch information in those documents. All such documents shall be marked and 
treated as described in paragraph 5 and, where applicable, paragraph 6. In the case of an oral 
statement containing BCI, or an oral response to a question, the party or third party m aking such a 
statement or response shall inform the Panel before making it that the statement will contain BCI, 
and the Panel will ensure that only persons authorized to have access to BCI pursuant to these 
procedures are present or observing the session a t that time. The written versions of such oral 
statements submitted to the Panel shall be marked as provided for in paragraph 5 and, where 
applicable, paragraph 6.  WT/DS537/13  
 
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  8. If a party or third party considers that information submitted by the other party or a third  
party should have been designated as BCI and objects to its submission without such designation, 
it shall forthwith bring this objection to the attention of the Panel and the other party, and, where 
relevant, the third parties, in writing, together with t he reasons for the objection, except where the 
information is submitted during a hearing, in which case the objection may be made verbally. 
Similarly, if a party or third party considers that the other party or a third party designated as BCI 
information w hich should not be so designated, it shall forthwith bring this objection to the attention 
of the Panel and the other party, and, where relevant, the third parties, in writing, together with the 
reasons for the objection, except where the information is su bmitted during a hearing, in which case 
the objection may be made verbally. The Panel shall decide whether information subject to an 
objection will be treated as BCI for the purposes of these proceedings, as appropriate, in accordance 
with the criteria set  out in paragraph 2. The information subject to an objection shall be treated as 
BCI in accordance with these procedures until the Panel makes its decision.  
9. The Panel will not disclose BCI, in its report or in any other way, to persons not authorized 
under  these procedures to have access to BCI. The Panel may, however, make statements of 
conclusion drawn from such information, and redact, as necessary, additional information in the 
public version of the report in order to prevent indirect disclosure of info rmation identified as BCI by 
the parties. Before the Panel circulates its final report to the Members, the Panel will give each party 
an opportunity to review the report to ensure that it does not contain any BCI.  
10. Submissions, exhibits, and other documents  or recordings containing BCI will be included in 
the record forwarded to the Appellate Body in the event of an appeal of the Report of the Panel.  
11. If (a) pursuant to Article 16.4 of the DSU, the Panel report is adopted by the DSB, or the DSB 
decides by co nsensus not to adopt the Panel report, (b) pursuant to Article 12.12 of the DSU, the 
authority for establishment of the Panel lapses, or (c) pursuant to Article 3.6 of the DSU, a mutually 
satisfactory solution is notified to the DSB before the Panel comple tes its task, within a period to be 
fixed by the Panel, each party and third party shall return all documents (including electronic material 
and photocopies) containing BCI to the party that designated such information as BCI, or certify in 
writing to the Panel and the other party (or the parties, in the case of a third party returning such 
documents) that all such documents (including electronic material and photocopies) have been 
destroyed. The Panel and the WTO Secretariat shall likewise return all such documents or certify to 
the parties that all such documents have been destroyed. The WTO Secretariat shall, however, retain 
one copy of each of the documents containing BCI for the archives of the WTO.  
 
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