ARGENTINA - MEASURES AFFECTING TEXTILES, CLOTHING AND FOOTWEAR
Document: Original: English ARGENTINA - MEASURES AFFECTING TEXTILES, CLOTHING AND FOOTWEAR Request for Establishment of a Panel by the European Communities
Date: 15 September 1997
Document codes: WT/DS77/3
Complainant: EU
Respondent: Argentina
Third parties: U.S.
Dispute stage: Panel
Agreements cited: Art. II  GATT 1994Art. 7  Textiles and Clothing

ARGENTINA - MEASURES AFFECTING
TEXTILES, CLOTHING AND FOOTWEAR
Request for Establishment of a Panel by the European Communities
The following communication, dated 10 September 1997, from the Permanent Delegation of
the European Commission to the Chairman of the Dispute Settlement Body, is circulated at the request
of that delegation.
My authorities have asked me to submit the following request on behalf of the European
Communities and their Member States for consideration at the next meeting of the Dispute Settlement
Body to be held on 25 September 1997.
On 23 April 1997 the European Communities (hereafter referred to as the EC) requested
consultations with Argentina pursuant to Article XXII:1 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
("GATT 1994"), Article 4 of the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement
of Disputes ("DSU") and Article 7 of the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC) with regard to
certain measures taken by Argentina concerning the textiles, clothing and footwear sectors.
Consultations were held with Argentina on 12 June 1997 in Geneva. These consultations have
allowed a better understanding of the respective positions but have not led to a satisfactory resolution
of the matter. The EC therefore now requests that a panel be established, with the standard terms
of reference.
The principal measures to which the EC objects are:
(a) the imposition of minimum specific duties on textiles and clothing products. These were
originally imposed by the Ministry of Economics, Infrastructure and Public Works with
Resolution No. 811/93 of 29 July 1993 and have been modified on numerous occasions, most
recently by Resolution No. 597/97 of the Ministry of Economics, Infrastructure and Public
Works of 14 May 1997. These measures
- cause duties to be imposed in excess of Argentina's 35% Uruguay Round binding;
- prevent improved market access for EC textile and clothing products;
- have not been notified to the Textiles Monitoring Body.

(b) the imposition of minimum specific duties on footwear products similar to those that have been
described above which also caused duties to be imposed in excess of Argentina's 35% Uruguay
Round binding. These were originally imposed by the Ministry of Economics, Infrastructure
and Public Works with Resolution No. 1696/93 of 29 July 1993, have been modified on
numerous occasions and were replaced by "provisional safeguard measures", still in the form
of minimum specific duties, by Resolutions 225/97 and 226/97 of the Ministry of Economics,
Infrastructure and Public Works both of 14 February 1997. The EC hopes that minimum specific
duties will not be reimposed and that it will not be necessary to include them in these
proceedings.
The EC will in particular request that the panel consider and find that:
(a) the measures described in point (a) above are in breach of Argentina's concessions under
Article II of GATT 1994 and violate Article 7 of the ATC;
(b) the measures described in point (b) above are in breach of Argentina's concessions under
Article II of GATT 1994 if they are reimposed.
The above summary is designed to briefly describe the legal basis of the complaint sufficient
to present the problem clearly but is not to be taken as restricting the arguments which the EC may
develop before the panel.