. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/DS291/32 
WT/DS292/26 
WT/DS293/26 
29 September 2006 
 
 (06-4645) 
 Original:   English 
 
 
 
EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES – MEASURES AFFECTING THE APPROVAL 
AND MARKETING OF BIOTECH PRODUCTS 
 
Communication from the Chairman of the Panel  
 
  The following communication, dated 29 September 2006, from Christian Häberli, Chairman of the Panel, addressed to the Chairman of the Di spute Settlement Body, is circulated in accordance 
with Article 12 of the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes . 
 
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  On behalf of the Panel, it is my honour to provide you with our Reports in European 
Communities - Measures Affecting the A pproval and Marketing of Biotech Products , WT/DS291, 
WT/DS292 and WT/DS293, which will be circulated  to Members of the World Trade Organization  
today.  In this connection, I would like to draw  the attention of the DSB to two systemic issues 
encountered in this case that should be of  concern to the Membership as a whole: 
 1. With the circulation of its Reports, the Panel is completing more than two and a half years of 
legal proceedings.  This is an unusually l ong period of time for WTO panel proceedings, 
considering also that Article 3.3 of the DSU st resses the importance of  the prompt settlement 
of disputes.  But the number of claims and pr oducts involved in this case was unprecedented 
and the record before the Panel immense.  An estimated 7-8 work years of professional 
Secretariat staff time (not including transla tion and support staff time) have gone into the 
preparation of these Reports, not counting the time invested by the Panellists.  This quite 
simply means that panels are unable to comple te proceedings concerning such disputes within 
the 6-9 month timeframe laid down in Article 12.9 of the DSU, without additional resources 
being made available to the Secretariat for this purpose. 
 2. The second point concerns the importance of pa rties maintaining the confidentiality of panel 
proceedings.  Regrettably, a serious confiden tiality breach occurred after the Panel's Interim 
Reports were circulated to the Parties.  Failure  to respect the confidentiality of interim reports, 
and indeed of all stages of the proceedings, ma kes it more difficult for parties to reach a 
mutually acceptable solution.  It is worth recalli ng in this regard that Article 3.7 of the DSU 
characterizes mutually acceptable solutions as the preferred solution to disputes.  Failure to 
respect the confidentiality of interim reports al so has an adverse effect on the willingness of 
private parties to make available to the par ties and panels business confidential information 
that may be critical to the resolution of a disput e.  Finally, it may potentially expose panels or 
the Secretariat to political pressure as a result of public discussion of, and debate on, a panel's interim findings and conclusions, with possibl e consequences for the panel process neither 
intended nor desired by WTO Members.  Given the serious breach which occurred in this 
case, the Panel provided the Parties with a conf idential version of its Final Reports which WT/DS291/32 
WT/DS292/26 WT/DS293/26 
Page 2 
  
  would have allowed it to trace back and attribut e any leak to the Party responsible for it.  
Future panels may wish to consider adop ting similar procedures, as appropriate.   
 
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