WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/ADP/Q1/PAN/9 
G/SCM/Q1/PAN/9 24 April 2009 
 
(09-1968) 
Committee on Anti-Dumping Practices 
Committee on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures Original:   Spanish 
 
 
 
NOTIFICATION OF LAWS AND REGULATIONS UNDER 
ARTICLES 18.5 AND 32.6 OF THE AGREEMENTS 
 
Replies to Questions Posed by the UNITED STATES1 
Concerning the Replies of PANAMA2 
   The following communication, dated 23 April 2009, is being circulated at the request of the delegation of Panama. 
 
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Question 1
 
 
In response to the United States' question 4, Panama described the interaction between 
its investigating authority and the National Customs Authority.  Please describe what avenues for redress have been established to allow interested  parties to seek clarification of the product 
scope covered by antidumping measures and wh at specific procedures govern such requests. 
 Reply
 
  Under the terms of Article 43 of Decree-L aw No. 7 of 2006 and Article 120 of Executive 
Decree No. 1 of 2009, once the investigating author ity has concluded an anti-dumping investigation it 
issues a resolution containing a recommendation to th e Council of Ministers as to whether a definitive 
measure should be imposed and what  form it should take, including the details necessary for its proper 
application. 
  The resolution must be sufficiently clear and specify the scope of products covered by the 
anti-dumping measure.  The information is availa ble to interested parties upon request to the 
investigating authority. 
 
 Once it has received the investigating authority's resolution, the Council of Ministers must decide whether to accept or reject the recommendation a nd issue a decree to that effect.  The decree is 
made accessible to the public through publication in the Official Journal. 
 
                                                     
 
1 G/ADP/Q1/PAN/8-G/SCM/Q1/PAN/8. 
2 G/ADP/Q1/PAN/7-G/SCM/Q1/PAN/7. G/ADP/Q1/PAN/9 
G/SCM/Q1/PAN/9 Page 2 
 
 
  Question 2
 
 
In response to the United States' question 7b, Panama explained that the 
non-confidential summaries submitted by interest ed parties under Article 92 of the Law, would 
be of "sufficient detail to permit an understa nding of the information concerned by the other 
interested parties". 
 
(a) Please clarify whether this article applies to the investigating authority and whether 
public summaries of confidential documents generated by the investigating authority, 
such as "on the spot investigation" reports, will be made available to the public or to 
interested parties. 
 
Reply  
 
 It is not Article 92 but Article 86 of Decree Law No. 7 of 2006 that regulates matters 
pertaining to access to the file and confidentialit y.  The obligation to provide non-confidential 
summaries of confidential information also applies to the investigating authority.  The summaries 
generated by the investigating auth ority must be sufficiently detailed and are made available to each 
of the parties once they have b een entered in the main file. 
 (b) Please clarify whether non-confidential summaries of confidential information 
submitted by any given interested party will be made available to all other interested 
parties in a proceeding. 
 
Reply
 
 
 A non-confidential summary of confidential in formation is made available to the other 
interested parties as soon as it has reached the investig ating authority and has been entered in the main 
file.  
(c) Please describe how Panama remedies in sufficient non-confidential summaries of 
confidential information and if insuffi cient summaries would be rejected by the 
investigating authority. 
 
Reply
 
 
 If a non-confidential summary is insufficient or unclear or the reasons given for finding it 
impossible to summarize the information are not warra nted, the investigating authority may return the 
summary to the party that provided it, which has five to ten days in which to remedy the problem, as stipulated in Article 54 of Executive Decree No. 1 of 8 January 2009 regulating Decree-Law No. 7 of 
2006.  (d) May interested parties in a given proceeding review the non-confidential file with 
respect to other interested parties that are in volved in the same proceeding, as well as 
the non-confidential file in other cases, to  obtain information that is relevant to 
defending their interests? 
 Reply
 
  All non-confidential information is availabl e to any interested party accredited in the 
investigation.   G/ADP/Q1/PAN/9 
 G/SCM/Q1/PAN/9 
 Page 3 
 
 
   Non-confidential files relating to concluded investigations are open to the public and are 
therefore accessible to anyone under the terms of Article 43 of the National Constitution of Panama, which reads as follows:  
ARTICLE 43.  Anyone is entitled to request information accessible to the public or of 
collective interest kept in databases or records held by public servan ts or private persons 
exercising public functions, provided that such access is not restricted by written provision or 
by law, and to require fair ha ndling and rectification thereof. 
 Question 3
 
 
 Panama explained in its response to the United  States' question 8, that parties have the 
right to appeal resolutions through judicial review. 
 
(a) Please describe the opportunities, if any, avai lable for administrative  reviews prior to an 
appeal before the Third Chamber of the Supre me Court of Justice of the Republic of 
Panama. 
 
Reply  
 
 Prior to appealing before the Third Chamber of  the Supreme Court of Justice, a party that 
disagrees with the investigating authority's deci sion may seek remedy through the Office of the 
Minister of Trade and Industry of Panama (Article  93 of Decree-Law No. 7 of 2006).  This procedure 
exhausts administrative remedies.  
 Once administrative channels have been exha usted, the party concerned may bring the case 
before the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court of Ju stice for judicial review on appeal (Article 200 
of Law No. 38 of 2000, published in Offi cial Journal No. 24109 of 2 August 2000). 
 
(b) The United States would appreciate Pana ma identifying the specific statutes and 
regulations that govern such administrative reviews and judicial appeals. 
 
Reply
 
  In the specific case of trade protection procedures, Article 93 of Decree-Law No. 7 of 2006 establishes the effect with which appeals are grante d.  This provision is supplemented by Article 163 
of Law No. 38 of 2000, which regulates general administrative procedure. 
 
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