UNITED STATES – SUBSIDIES ON UPLAND COTTON
Document: Communication from Brazil
Date: 30 September 2009
Document codes: WT/DS267/40; WT/DS267/ARB/1
Complainant: Brazil
Respondent: U.S.
Third parties: Argentina, Australia, Benin, Canada, Chad, China, Taiwan, EU, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Paraguay, Venezuela, Japan, Thailand
Dispute stage: Mutually Agreed Solution
Agreements cited: Art. 3, 5, 6  Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM)Art. 3.3, 7.1, 8, 9.1, 10.1  AgricultureArt. III:4, XVI  GATT 1994

UNITED STATES – SUBSIDIES ON UPLAND COTTON

Communication from Brazil

 The following communication, dated 25 Septembe r 2009, from the delegation of Brazil to the
delegation of the United States and to the Chairman of the Dispute Settlement Body, is circulated at
the request of that delegation.

 – Recourse to Arbitration by the United States under
Article 22.6 of the DSU and Article 4.11 of the SCM Agreement . In that Decision (contained in
document ), the Arbitrator provided a formula
1 for the calculation of the
permissible amount of annual countermeasures that Br azil would be entitled to take with respect to
measures which were found to be prohibited subsidies in the above-mentioned dispute.
2. According to the Arbitrator, the amount of such countermeasures shall depend, inter alia, on
the transaction value secured by General Sales Mana ger 102 ("GSM 102") export credit guarantees.
In that regard, the Decision by the Arbitrator provides as follows:
"The United States shall provide the most recent fiscal year data on GSM 102
transactions. The data on GSM 102 transactions by commodity and by obligor shall
be supplied in the exact format (and software) as Exhibit US-78."
2
3. Furthermore, the Arbitrator determined that the formula shall be applied to scheduled
products (pig meat, poultry meat and rice) only to th e extent that the export subsidies provided to
volumes of exports of the products are in excess of US quantity or budgetary outlay reduction
commitments. According to the Arbitrator, this shall require a deduction to be made to the transaction
value secured by GSM 102 export credit guarantees issued for a particular fiscal year, so that only
export subsidies that exceed US WTO commitments are included.
4. In order for Brazil to be able to calculate this deduction, the Arbitrator decided as follows:
"The United States shall provide the most recent data on US export prices of the
scheduled products.
[Original footnote: The period covered by the data on US export prices must correspond to the
fiscal year of the GSM 102 data, i.e. if GSM 102 data of fiscal year 2008 is used, data on US
export prices for calendar year 2008 shall be employed.]"3

1 See document WT/DS267/ARB/1, paragraph 6.5(a) and Annex 4.
2 See document WT/DS267/ARB/1, and Annex 4, paragraph 5.

5. Bearing in mind that fiscal years 2008 and 2009 ended on 30 September 2008 and
30 September 2009, respectively, I hereby request that the United States provide Brazil with (i) the
data on GSM 102 transactions for fiscal years 2008 and 2009, by commodity and by obligor, in the
format and software indicated by the Arbitrator; a nd (ii) most recent data on US export prices of the
above-mentioned scheduled products for 2008 and 2009.
6. A copy of this letter is being sent to the Chai rman of the Dispute Settlement Body, with the
request that it be circulated to its Members.