Document: WT/DS384/R WT/DS386/R Page E-1 ANNEX E WORKING PROCEDURES FOR THE PANEL CONTENTS PAGE E-1 Working procedures for the Panel as revised on 21 September 2010 E-2 E-2 Additional procedures for the protection of business confidential information
Date: 21 September 2010
Document codes: WT/DS384/R; WT/DS386/R
Complainant: Mexico
Respondent: U.S.
Third parties: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, EU, Guatemala, India, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Peru, Taiwan
Dispute stage: Implementation & Compliance
Agreements cited: Art. III, X:3(a), IX  GATT 1994Art. 2, 12  Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT)Art. 2, 5, 7  Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS)Art. 2  Rules of Origin

ANNEX E

WORKING PROCEDURES FOR THE PANEL

CONTENTS PAGE
E-1 Working procedures for the Panel as revised on 21 September 2010

E-2
E-2 Additional procedures for the protection of business confidential information
("BCI procedures")
E-6

UNITED STATES – CERTAIN COUNTRY OF ORIGIN
LABELLING (COOL) REQUIREMENTS
(DS384 and DS386)

WORKING PROCEDURES FOR THE PANEL
AS REVISED ON 21 SEPTEMBER 2010

1. The Panel will provide the parties to the dispute (hereinafter "parties") and third parties to the
dispute (hereinafter "third parties") with a timet able for panel proceedings and shall follow the
relevant provisions of the Dispute Settlement U nderstanding (DSU). In addition, the following
working procedures shall apply.
2. The Panel shall conduct its internal deliberations in closed session. The parties, and the third
parties, shall be present at the meetings only when in vited by the Panel to appear before it. The Panel
may open its meetings with the parties to the public , subject to appropriate procedures to be adopted
by the Panel after consulting the parties.
3. The deliberations of the Panel and the documents submitted to it shall be kept confidential.
Nothing in the DSU or in these wo rking procedures shall preclude a pa rty or third party to a dispute
from disclosing statements of its own positions to the public. Members shall treat as confidential
information submitted by another Member to the Panel which the submitting Member has designated
as confidential. Where a party submits a confidentia l version of its written submissions to the Panel,
it shall also, upon request of a Member, provide a non-confidential summary of the information
contained in its submissions that could be disclosed to the public.
4. Before the first substantive meeting of the Panel with the parties and third parties, the parties
shall transmit to the Panel written submissions in which they present the facts of the case and their
arguments. The third parties may also transmit to the Panel written submissions in accordance with
the timetable established by the Panel.
5. At its first substantive meeting with the parti es, the Panel shall ask Canada and Mexico then
the United States to present their cases. All third parties may be present during the entirety of the first
substantive meeting with the parties.
6. All third parties shall be invited to present thei r views during a session of the first substantive
meeting of the Panel set aside for that purpose. All third parties may be present during the entirety of
this session with third parties. During this meeting, third parties may ask questions to the parties or to
the other third parties. The parties and the other third parties, however, have no obligation to respond
to these questions.
7. Formal rebuttals shall be made at the second s ubstantive meeting of the Panel. At this
meeting, the United States shall have the right to take the floor first to be followed by Canada and
Mexico. The parties shall submit, prior to that m eeting, written rebuttals to the Panel in accordance
with the timetable. All third parties may be present during the entirety of the second substantive
meeting with the parties.
8. The Panel may at any time put questions to th e parties and third parties and ask them for
explanations either during the course of a meeting w ith the parties and third parties or in writing.
Written replies to questions shall be submitted in accordance with the timetable.

9. All third parties shall be invited to present a brief statement during a session of the second
substantive meeting of the Panel set aside for that purpose. All third parties may be present during the
entirety of this session with third parties. During th is meeting, third parties may ask questions to the
parties or to the other third parties. The parti es and third parties, however, have no obligation to
respond to these questions.
10. The parties and third parties shall make availabl e to the Panel a written version of their oral
statements by 5:30 pm (Geneva time) on the first wo rking day after the meeting. Each party shall
make available a copy of the written version to th e other parties, and each third party shall make
available a copy of the written version to the partie s and the other third parties, at the same time it
makes available the written version to the Panel. The parties and third parties are encouraged to
provide a provisional written version of their oral statements at the time the oral statement is
presented.
11. The presentations, rebuttals and statements referred to in paragraphs 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 shall be
made in the presence of the parties. Moreover, each party's written submissions, written answers to
questions and comments thereon, co mments on the descriptive part of the report, and written request
for review of precise aspects of the interim repor t and comments on another party's request shall be
made available to the other parties. Each party's written submissions and written answers to questions
after the first substantive meeting with the Panel shall also be made available to all third parties.
12. Any request for a preliminary ruling (including rulings on jurisdictional issues) shall be
submitted at the earliest possible moment, and in any event no later than in a party's first written
submission. If a party requests such a preliminary ruling, the other parties shall submit their
respective response to such request within a time li mit specified by the Panel. Exceptions to this
procedure will be granted upon a showing of good cause.
13. The parties shall submit all factual evidence to the Panel no later than during the first
substantive meeting, except with respect to factual evidence necessary for purposes of rebuttals,
answers to questions or comments on answers provided by each other. Exceptions to this procedure
will be granted upon a showing of good cause. In such cases, the other parties shall be accorded a
period of time for comment, as appropriate.
14. To facilitate the maintenance of the record of th e dispute, and for ease of reference to exhibits
submitted by the parties, the parties are requested to number their exhibits sequentially throughout the
stages of the dispute. For example, exhibits s ubmitted by Canada could be numbered CAN-1, CAN-
2, etc, exhibits submitted by Mexico could be nu mbered MEX-1, MEX-2, etc. and exhibits submitted
by the United States could be numbered US-1, US-2 , etc. If, for example, the last exhibit in
connection with the first submission was numbered C AN-5, the first exhibit of its next submission
thus would be numbered CAN-6. The parties and third parties may submit exhibits as electronic files
saved on CD-ROMs. However, 2 paper copies of the exhibits contained on a CD-ROM shall be
provided to the Panel. Moreover, where a party re quests a paper copy of an exhibit submitted as an
electronic file, the party or third party having submitted the exhibit shall provide, within three
business days, one paper copy to the other parties to the dispute and, where an electronic exhibit was
served on the third parties, on the third parties.
15. The parties and third parties shall submit ex ecutive summaries of their written submissions
(excluding any separate requests for a preliminary ruling and responses thereto) and oral statements
within twenty days of the original submission or statement concerned. Each executive summary of
the written submissions to be provided by each pa rty shall not exceed 10 pages in length and each
executive summary of the oral statements shall not exceed 5 pages in length. The summary to be

provided by each third party shall not exceed 5 pag es. The Panel may revise these page limits upon
request of a party. Paragraph 21 shall apply to the service of executive summaries.
16. The executive summaries shall not in any way serve as a substitute for the submissions of the
parties and third parties in the Panel's examination of the case. The Panel intends to use them solely
for the purpose of preparing the descriptive part of its report, subject to any modifications deemed
appropriate by the Panel. The replies of the par ties and third parties to questions and the parties'
comments on each other's replies to questions will not be attached to the Pane l report as annexes.
They will be reflected in the findings section of the Panel report where relevant.
17. The parties and third parties to these proceedings have the right to determine the composition
of their own delegations. The parties and third pa rties shall have responsibility for all members of
their delegations and shall ensure that all member s of their delegations act in accordance with the
rules of the DSU and the Working Procedures of this Panel. The parties and the third parties shall
provide a list of the participants of their dele gation before each meeting with the Panel to the
Secretary of the Panel, Mrs. Tessa Bridgman (e-mail: tessa.bridgman@wto.org).
18. To allow the Panel to prepare its report in an efficient manner, any party wishing to request a
separate panel report pursuant to Article 9.2 of the DS U shall make such a request no later than at the
second substantive meeting of the Panel.
19. Following issuance of the interim report, the pa rties shall have two weeks to submit written
requests to review precise aspects of the interim report and to request a further meeting with the
Panel. The right to request such a meeting must be exercised no later than at the time the written
request for review is submitted. Following receipt of any written requests for review, in cases where
no further meeting with the Panel is requested, the parties shall have the opportunity within one week
to submit written comments on the other parties' writt en request(s) for review . Such comments shall
be strictly limited to responding to the other parties' written request(s) for review. The parties are also
reminded that the interim report shall be kept st rictly confidential and sh all not be disclosed.
The Panel reserves the right to earmark its communi cations to enable the identification of possible
breaches of confidentiality, especially the Panel's inte rim report and its final re port before the latter's
circulation to all Members.
20. The Panel will do its utmost to provide the partie s with electronic versions of the descriptive
part of its report, its interim report and its final re port. Paper copies will be provided to the parties in
any event. In case of inconsistency between the electronic and paper copy version of these
documents, the hard copy version shall prevail.
21. The following procedures regarding service of documents apply:
 (a) Each party and third party shall serve any document submitted to the Panel directly
on the other parties. Each party shall, in addition, serve its written submissions and
written answers to the Panel's questions afte r the first substantive meeting on all third
parties. Each third party shall serve any document submitted to the Panel on the
parties and all other third parties. Each party and third party shall confirm, in writing,
that copies have been served as required at the time it provides each document to the
Panel.
(b) Each party and third party should provide the Panel and the other parties with their
submissions, written answers to questions and comments invited by the Panel by
7:00 p.m. (Geneva time) of the date referred to in the timetable, unless a different
time is set by the Panel. Each party shall, in addition, provide all third parties with its

written answers to the Panel's questions after the first substantive meeting by
7:00 p.m. (Geneva time) of the date indicated by the Panel.
(c) Each party and third party shall provide the Panel with 9 paper copies of all
documents submitted to the Panel. Where a party or third party submits exhibits as
electronic files pursuant to paragraph 14, it shall provide the Panel with four
CD-ROMs containing such files and 2 pape r copies of the files contained on the
CD-ROMs. All these copies shall be filed with the Dispute Settlement Registrar,
Mr. Ferdinand Ferranco (office 3178).
(d) At the time it provides a hard copy of it s submissions, each party and third party shall
also provide the Panel with electronic copi es of all its submissions on a CD-ROM or
DVD or as an e-mail attachment in a format compatible with the Secretariat's text-
editing software. E-mail attachments shall be sent to the Dispute Settlement Registry
(DSRegistry@wto.org) with a copy to Ms. Aegyoung Jung (e-mail:
aegyoung.jung@wto.org), Mr. János Volkai (janos.volkai@wto.org) and Mrs. Tessa
Bridgman (e-mail: tessa.bridgman@wto.org ). If a CD-ROM or DVD is provided,
it should be delivered to Mr. Ferdinand Ferranco in four copies.
22. The Panel reserves the right to modify these pr ocedures at any time following consultations
with the parties.

UNITED STATES - CERTAIN COUNTRY OF ORIGIN
LABELLING (COOL) REQUIREMENTS
(DS384 and DS386)

Procedures of the Panel Concerning Business Confidential Information
1

1. These procedures apply to any business confidentia l information (BCI) that a party wishes to
submit to the Panel.
2. For the purposes of these procedures, BCI is defined as any information that has been
designated as such by the Party submitting the informa tion, that is not available in the public domain,
and the release of which would seriously prejudice an essential interest of the person or entity that
supplied the business information to the Party.
3. No person may have access to BCI except a member of the Secretariat or the Panel, a party's
or third party's employee participating in the dispute, and a party's or third party's outside advisor for
purposes of this dispute. However, an outside adviso r is not permitted access to BCI if that advisor is
an officer or employee of an enterprise engaged in the production, export, or import of cattle, swine,
beef, or pork. When a party or third party provid es BCI to an outside advisor who is an employee or
officer of an industry association of such enterpri ses, that party or third party shall obtain written
assurances from such advisor that he or she has read and understands th ese Working Procedures and
will not disclose any BCI in contravention of the Working Procedures.
4. A party or third party obtaining access to BCI as a result of the BCI being submitted in this
dispute shall treat it as confidential, i.e. shall not di sclose that information other than to those persons
authorized to receive it pursuant to these proced ures. Each party and third party shall have
responsibility in this regard for its employees as well as any outside advisors for the purposes of this
dispute. BCI obtained under these procedures ma y be used only for the purpose of providing
information and argumentation in this dispute.
5. A party or third party submitting or referring to BCI in a document shall mark the cover and
each page of the document to indicate the presence of BCI in the document as follows: BCI shall be
placed between double brackets (for example, [[xx,xxx.xx ]]). The cover and the top of each page of
the document shall contain the notice "Contains Busin ess Confidential Information". Any BCI that is
submitted in electronic form shall be clearly marked with the phrase "Contains BCI" on a label on the
storage medium, and clearly marked with the phrase "Contains BCI" in the electronic file name.
6. In the case of an oral statement containing BCI to be delivered in the session not open to
public observation as foreseen in paragraphs 2 and 3 of the "Procedures for open hearings, first and
second substantive meetings of the Panel," the Pane l should ensure that only persons authorized to
have access to BCI pursuant to these procedures are permitted to hear the statement.
7. The parties, third parties, and the Panel shall store all documents containing BCI so as to
prevent unauthorized access to such information.
8. The Panel shall not disclose BCI, in its report or in any other way, to persons not authorized
under these procedures to have access to BCI. The Panel may, however, make statements of
conclusion drawn from such information. Before th e Panel makes its final report publicly available,

1 These procedures are adopted according to, and are an integral part of, the Panel's Working
Procedures of 18 June 2010.

the Panel shall give each party an opportunity to ensure that the report does not contain any
information that it has designated as BCI.
9. Submissions containing BCI will be included in the record forw arded to the Appellate Body
in the event of an appeal of the Panel's Report.