WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/RL/GEN/84 
17 November 2005 
 (05-5426) 
Negotiating Group on Rules Original:   Spanish 
 
 
 
ACCESS TO INFORMATION 
 
Paper from Mexico  
  
 The following communication, dated 16 November 2005, is being circulated at the request of 
the delegation of Mexico.   The delegation of Mexico has requested th at this paper, which was submitted to the 
Negotiating Group on Rules as an informal document (J OB(05)/288), also be circulated as a formal 
document.  
_______________ 
 
 
 The proposal contained in this document does not represent a final position and may be 
subject to further addition and/or modification in  the course of the negotiations.  We urge other 
Members to put forward comments.  Object 
 
 To establish more precise rules that guarantee the right of interested parties to have timely access to public information in th e administrative record and to confidential information, provided 
that the requirements laid down in Members' domestic legislation as a result of these negotiations are fulfilled. 
 
Problem with the current Anti-Dumping Agreement 
 
 Article 6.4 of the Anti-Dumping Agreement (ADA) stipulates that investigating authorities 
shall whenever practicable give interested parties timely ( a su debido tiempo ) access to non-
confidential information for the presentation of th eir cases.  However, it does not specify how access 
is to be granted (availability, timeframe, among other things), nor does it provide for access to 
information classified as confidential.   In this regard, we consider that if interested parties are to be able to defend their interests, 
they should have "timely" (" oportuno ") access to information contained in the record, if possible as 
soon as the information has been submitted.  To that end, a mechanism needs to be established, in all 
the internal legislation of Members, which allows  access to public information in the administrative 
record, for example by providing an index of public and confidential versions  of the information and 
by offering the possibility of photocopying or making electronic backups of public information. 
 
 Article 6.5 of the ADA indicates by way of example what can be understood by confidential 
information and how such information should be treated  by investigating authorities.  In our view, it is 
important to define more precisely what should be understood by "confidential information", and we 
therefore propose adding a new paragraph to Article 6 of the ADA. TN/RL/GEN/84 
Page 2  
 
  
 In order to guarantee exporters, importers a nd domestic producers the right to a full defence, 
we also consider it important to establish a mechanism whereby they can access confidential 
information contained in the record, for the purposes of dumping and injury and causal link, and above all information that is not susceptible of summary, provided that the requirements of domestic 
legislation are met.  We would therefore propose to  add a further paragraph to Article 6 of the ADA, 
stipulating, among the requirements for acceding to such information, that the representatives of 
interested parties shall sign an undertaking of c onfidentiality which prohibits the use of information 
for personal benefit and/or for dissemination to th e public, and laying down penalties in the event of 
non-compliance. 
 
 Likewise, it is important to bear in mind that in anti-dumping proceedings enterprises may submit information of a highly confidential nature th e disclosure of which would result in irreversible 
material or financial injury to the owner of such information.  Hence it is necessary to define three 
types of information – non-confidential information,  confidential information, and information of a 
restricted nature that is available to the authorit y alone – and consequently to establish that the latter 
shall be prohibited from disclosing such information,  so as to protect the interests of the parties 
submitting it.  TN/RL/GEN/84 
 Page 3 
 
 
 Proposed amendments 
 
 This document takes into account proposals and comments by other Members.1 
 
Proposed amendments to the Anti-Dumping Agreement 
 
(The new text is underlined and the text to be deleted is crossed out.) 
 
Article 6 - Evidence 
 
6.4 The authorities shall whenever practicable  promptly  provide timely opportunities  for all 
interested parties that so request opportunities  to see all information that is  relevant to the presentation 
of their cases, that is not confidential  contained in the administrative record,2 including information 
that is confidential  as defined in paragraph 5, with the exception of restricted information ,3 and that is 
used by the authorities in an anti -dumping inve stigation, and  in order  to prepare presentations on the 
basis of this information. 
 6.5 Any information which is by nature confiden tial (for example, because its disclosure would 
be of significant competitive advantage to a competitor or because its disclo sure would have a 
significantly adverse effect upon a person supplying the information or upon a person from whom that 
person acquired the information) , or which is provided on a confidential basis by interested  parties in 
to an investigation shall, upon good cause shown, be treated as such by the authorities.  Such 
information shall not be disclosed without specific permission of the party submitting it.4 
  6.5.1
 For the purposes of an anti-dumping investig ation, the information indicated below 
shall be treated as confidential, if it is pr esented as such by interested parties, because 
revealing or disseminating it to the public would be of significant competitive 
advantage to a competitor or would have a significantly adverse effect upon the 
interested party supplying the information or upon a person from whom the interested 
party acquired the information:  
  (a)
 Production processes for the goods at issue;  
 (b)  production costs and specifications of the components;  
 (c)  distribution costs;  
 (d)  terms and conditions of sale, except for those offered to the public;  
 (e)  price of sale per transaction and per product, except for components of prices such as 
dates of sale and distribution of the product;  
 (f)  description of the kind of individual clients, distributors or suppliers;  
 (g)  where applicable, the exact amount of margin of dumping in individual sales;  
 (h)  the names of natural or legal persons from whom the interested party obtained 
relevant information shall be ava ilable exclusively to the authority;  
                                                      
1 TN/RL/W/35, TN/RL/GEN/13, TN/R L/GEN/49, TN/RL/GEN/49/Add.1, TN/RL/W/147 and TN/RL/W/162. 
2 The administrative record shall contain all such information of a documentary or other nature as may be 
submitted to, or obtained by, the investigating authority in  the course of an anti-dumping investigation or review 
proceedings, including government communications classified as public or confidential, transcripts or minutes 
of meetings and hearings, resolutions, and notices published in the Official Journal of the importing Member.  
3 Restricted information is information so sensitive th at disclosure thereof can result in substantial and 
irreversible material or financial injury to the owner of such information, for example, secret formulas or 
processes with commercial va lue that are unpatented and are known only  to a limited group of persons who use 
it in the production of a commercial product.  
4  M e m b e rs are aware that in the territory of cert ain Members disclosure pursuant to a narrowly -drawn 
protective order may be required.  TN/RL/GEN/84 
Page 4  
 
  (i)
 amounts of the adjustments for terms and conditions of sale, volume or quantity, 
variable costs and taxes proposed by the interested party;  and  
 (j)  any other specific information from the ente rprise in question, or such information as 
it provides from related enterprises, subsidia ries, suppliers, clients or distributors.  
 
 6.5.1 2 The authorities may only use confidential information provided by interested parties 
if such information is accompanied by  shall require interested parties providing 
confident ial information to furnish  a public version of the document containing 
confidential information.  The public ve rsion shall be identical to the version 
containing the confidential information, excep t that the confidential information shall 
be removed and replaced with a non-confidential summary .  These summaries shall 
be in sufficient detail to permit a reasona ble understanding of th e substance of the 
information submitted in confidence.  In exceptional circumstances, such parties may 
indicate that such information is not su sceptible of summary.  In such exceptional 
circumstances, a statement of the reasons why summarization is not possible must be 
provided. 
  6.5.2
3 If the authorities find that a request for confidentiality is not warranted and if the 
suppli er of  interested party that supplied  the information is either unwilling to make 
the information public or to authorize its disclosure in generalized or  summary form, 
the authorities may disregard such informa tion unless it can be demonstrated to their 
satisfaction from appropriate sources that the information is correct. 5 
  6.5.4
  The authorities shall make available to  interested parties an index of the 
administrative record, including a list of docum ents that have not been disclosed for 
reasons of confidentiality.  The authorities shall decide on a location in which 
information shall be deposited immediately upon receipt and to which all interested 
parties shall have freedom of access in orde r to consult or phot ocopy non-confidential 
information.  
  6.5.4
5 The authorities shall establish a me chanism allowing timely access, for the 
representatives of interested parties, to confidential information contained in the 
administrative record, provided that the re quirements of domestic legislation are met.6  
To that end, the representatives shall be he ld to an undertaking of confidentiality 
strictly prohibiting the use of informa tion for personal benefit and dissemination 
among individuals who are not authorized to access such information.  The authorities 
shall lay down specific penalties for breach of undertakings by the representatives of 
interested parties.  
  
__________ 
  
                                                     
 
5  Members agree that requests for confiden tiality should not be arbitrarily rejected. 
 6 Each Member shall take all necessary steps, of a ge neral and/or particular character, to ensure that, 
not later than the date of entry into force of the ame ndments to the Agreement on Implementation of Article VI 
of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994, the requirements and procedures guaranteeing timely access to confidential information contained in the re cord are established in its laws, regulations and 
administrative procedures.