EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES – SELECTED CUSTOMS MATTERS (WT/DS315)
Document: WORKING PROCEDURES
Date: 6 July 2005
Document codes: WT/DS315/R
Complainant: U.S.
Respondent: EU
Third parties: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, Japan, South Korea
Dispute stage: Appellate Body
Agreements cited: Art. X:3, X:1  GATT 1994

ANNEX E

PANEL'S WORKING PROCEDURES

CONFIDENTIAL

EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES – SELECTED CUSTOMS MATTERS
(WT/DS315)

WORKING PROCEDURES

1. The Panel will provide the parties with a tim etable for panel proceedings and will work
according to the normal working procedures as set out in the DSU and its Appendix 3 plus certain
additional procedures, as follows:
2. The Panel shall meet in closed session. The par ties to the dispute, and the third parties, shall
be present at the meetings only when invited by the Panel to appear before it.
3. The deliberations of the Panel and the documents submitted to it shall be kept confidential.
Nothing in the DSU shall preclude a party to a dis pute from disclosing statements of its own positions
to the public. Members shall treat as confidentia l information submitted by another Member to the
Panel which that Member has designated as confidentia l. As provided in Article 18.2 of the DSU,
where a party to a dispute submits a confidential ve rsion 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 Pane l with the parties, the parties to the dispute
shall transmit to the Panel written submissions in which they present the facts of the case and their
arguments.
5. At its first substantive meeting with the par ties, the Panel shall ask the party which has
brought the complaint to present its case. Subseque ntly, at the same meeting, the party against which
the complaint has been brought shall be asked to present its points of view.
6. The third parties shall be invited in writing to present their 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.
7. Formal rebuttals shall be made at a second s ubstantive meeting of the Panel. The party
complained against shall have the right to take the fl oor first to be followed by the complaining party.
The parties shall submit, prior to that meeting, written rebuttals to the Panel.
8. The Panel may at any time put questions to the pa rties and ask them for explanations either in
the course of a meeting with the parties or in writi ng. Written replies to questions shall be submitted
by the dates indicated in the Panel's timetable.

9. The parties and the third parties shall make av ailable to the Panel and the other parties a
provisional written version of their statements at hear ings. Final written versions of oral statements
must be submitted on the dates provided for in paragraph 18 (c) of these Working Procedures.
10. In the interest of full transparency, the presenta tions, rebuttals and statements referred to in
paragraphs 5 to 9 shall be made in the presence of the parties. Moreover, each party's written
submissions, including responses to questions pu t by the Panel, comments on those responses,
executive summaries, comments on th e descriptive part of the report, and comments on the interim
report, shall be made available to the other party.
11. Any request for a preliminary ruling (including rulings on jurisdictional issues) to be made by
the Panel shall be submitted no later than in a pa rty's first written submission. If the complaining
party requests any such ruling, the respondent shall submit its response to such a request in its first
written submission. If the respondent requests any su ch ruling, the complaining party shall submit its
response to such a request prior to the first substa ntive meeting of the Panel. The complaining party
shall submit this response at a time to be determined by the Panel after receipt and in light of the
respondent's request. Exceptions to this procedure will be granted upon a showing of good cause.
12. Parties shall submit all factual evidence to the Panel no later than during the first substantive
meeting, except with respect to evidence necessary for purposes of re buttals, answers to questions or
comments made for purposes of rebutting answers provi ded by others. Exceptions to this procedure
will be granted upon a showing of good cause. In such cases, the other party shall be accorded a
period of time for comment, as appropriate.
13. To facilitate the maintenance of the record of th e dispute, and for ease of reference to exhibits
submitted by the parties, parties are requested to number their exhibits sequentially throughout the
stages of the dispute.
14. The parties and the third parties should subm it executive summaries in accordance with the
Panel's timetable. Each summary provided by th e parties should not exceed 10 pages. The summary
to be provided by each third party should not ex ceed 5 pages. The executive summaries shall not
serve in any way as a substitute for the submissions of the parties or third parties. However, the Panel
will reproduce the executive summaries provided by th e parties and third parties in the descriptive
part of its report, subject to any modifications deemed appropriate by the Panel.
15. The parties and third parties to this proceeding have the right to determine the composition of
their own delegations. Delegations may include, as representatives of the government concerned,
private counsel and advisers. The parties and third parties 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 Pa nel, particularly in regard to confidentiality of
the proceedings. Parties shall provide a list of the participants of their delegation before the beginning
of the meeting with the Panel.
16. Following issuance of the interim report, the par ties shall have no less than 2 weeks to submit
written requests to review precise aspects of the inte rim 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 no less than 7 days to submit
written comments on the other parties' written requests for review. Such comments shall be strictly
limited to commenting the other parties' written requests for review.
17.
 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. Hard copies will be provided to the parties in

any event. In case of inconsistency between the el ectronic and hard copy version of these documents,
the hard copy version shall prevail.
18. The following procedures regarding service of documents apply:
 (a) Each party and third party shall serve its submissions, including its executive
summaries mentioned in paragraph 14 above, di rectly on all other parties, including
where appropriate the third parties, and conf irm that it has done so at the time it
provides its submission to the Panel.
(b) The parties and the third parties should provide their written submissions and written
answers to questions by 5:30 p.m. on the deadlines established by the Panel, unless a
different time is set by the Panel.
(c) Parties and third parties shall provide the Secretariat with copies of the final written
versions of their oral statements by 5:30 p.m. on the first working day following the
last day of the substantive meetings.
(d) The parties and third parties shall provi de the Panel with 10 copies of all their
submissions, including the written versions of oral statements and answers to
questions. All these copies shall be filed with the Dispute Settlement Registrar, Mr.
XXXXX (office number xxxx).
(e) At the time they provide a hard copy of their submissions, the parties and third parties
shall also provide the Panel with an electronic copy of all their submissions on a
diskette or as an e-mail attachment in a format compatible with the Secretariat's
software. E-mail attachments shall be sent to the Dispute Settlement Registry
(DSRegistry@wto.org) with a copy to XXXXX (e-mail: XXXXX @wto.org) and to
XXXXX (email: XXXXX@wto.org).