DS: Canada — Measures Concerning Trade in Commercial Aircraft

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Current status

 

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Key facts

 

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Latest document

  

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Summary of the dispute to date

The summary below was up-to-date at

Consultations

Complaint by Brazil

On 8 February 2017, Brazil requested consultations with Canada with respect to measures concerning trade in commercial aircraft.

Brazil claimed that the measures appear to be inconsistent with:

• Articles 3.1(a), 3.1(b), 3.2, 5(c), 6.3(a), 6.3(b), 6.3(c), 6.4 and 6.5 of the SCM Agreement.

On 23 February 2017, Japan requested to join the consultations. On 24 February 2017, the European Union and the United States requested to join the consultations. Subsequently, Canada informed the DSB that it had accepted the requests of the European Union, Japan and the United States to join the consultations.

 

Panel and Appellate Body proceedings

On 18 August 2017, Brazil requested the establishment of a panel. At its meeting on 31 August 2017, the DSB deferred the establishment of a panel.

At its meeting on 29 September 2017, the DSB established a panel. China, the European Union, Japan, the Russian Federation, Singapore and the United States reserved their third-party rights.

Pursuant to paragraph 4 of Annex V (on the procedures for developing the information concerning serious prejudice) of the SCM Agreement, at its meeting on 25 October 2017, the DSB agreed to designate Mr Hanspeter Tschaeni as a representative to serve the function of facilitating the information-gathering process.

On 24 October 2017, Canada requested the Annex V Facilitator, Mr Hanspeter Tschaeni, to suspend the Annex V procedures until the panel issued a preliminary ruling on Canada's request that the panel find that certain aspects of Brazil's panel request do not meet the requirements of Article 6.2 of the DSU. On 25 October 2017, Brazil informed the Annex V Facilitator that it disagreed with the proposed suspension of the Annex V procedures and that Brazil would respond to Canada's preliminary ruling request once the panel is composed. On 4 April 2018, the Annex V Facilitator informed the DSB that, after consulting with the parties, and given the circumstances explained in its communication, it was impossible to fulfil its mandate.

On 29 January 2018, Brazil requested the Director-General to compose the panel. On 6 February 2018, the Deputy Director-General, acting in place of the Director-General, composed the panel.

On 17 April 2018, the Chair of the panel requested the Chair of the DSB to circulate to the Members its preliminary ruling concerning the alleged inconsistency of certain aspects of Brazil's panel request with the requirements of Article 6.2 of the DSU. The Chair of the panel indicated that it had circulated its preliminary ruling to the parties and the third parties on 9 April 2018.

On 18 June 2018, the Chair of the panel informed the DSB that due to the complexity of the dispute, the panel expected to issue its final report to the parties by the second half of 2019.The Chair also informed the DSB that the report would be available to the public once it was circulated to the Members in all three official languages, and that the date of circulation depended on completion of translation.

On 24 September 2018, further to paragraph 2(5) of the panel's Working Procedures, the Chair of the panel requested the DSB in separate communications to circulate to Members: (i) five partial timetables adopted by the panel between March and September 2018, (ii) the Working Procedures adopted by the panel on 9 March 2018 and (iii) the additional Working Procedures for the protection of business confidential information and highly sensitive information adopted by the panel on 27 July 2018. On 5 February 2019, the Chair of the panel requested the DSB in separate communications to circulate to Members changes made to the partial timetable, resulting from a joint request from the parties, as well as to the additional Working Procedures for the protection of business confidential information and highly sensitive business information.

Following the resignation of the Chair of the Panel, the Deputy Director-General, acting in place of the Director-General, replaced the Chair and appointed a new member of the Panel, pursuant to a joint request made by the parties on 25 April 2019.

On 10 October 2019, the Chair of the panel informed the DSB that in light of the changes to the timetable for this dispute pursuant to requests made by the parties, and considering the complexity of this dispute, the panel expected to issue its final report to the parties during the second half of 2020. The Chair reiterated that the report would be available to the public once it was circulated to the Members in all three official languages, and that the date of circulation depended on completion of translation.

On 25 November 2019, the Chair of the panel informed the DSB that further to Brazil's request of 7 November 2019, to which Canada had objected on 12 November 2019, the panel had agreed to suspend its work in this dispute, pursuant to Article 12.12 of the DSU until 15 April 2020. On 14 April 2020, the Chair of the panel informed the DSB that the panel had accepted Brazil’s request of 9 April 2020, to which Canada had not objected, to extend the suspension of the panel work until 4 November 2020, due to the measures being adopted in response to the crisis caused by COVID-19. The Chair noted that the panel’s authority shall lapse 12 months after the suspension of its work. On 3 November 2020, the Chair of the panel informed the DSB that the panel had accepted an additional request from Brazil of 29 October 2020, to which Canada had not objected, to extend the suspension the panel's work until 23 November 2020.

On 29 May 2020, Brazil and Canada informed the DSB that they had agreed to Procedures for Arbitration under Article 25 of the DSU in this dispute. Such procedures were entered into by Brazil and Canada to give effect to the communication JOB/DSB/1/Add.12 (“Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement Pursuant To Article 25 Of The DSU (MPIA)”) and with the objective of setting a framework for an Arbitrator to decide on any appeal of any final panel report issued in this dispute.

On 26 November 2020 the Chair of the panel informed the DSB that the panel had resumed its work on 23 November 2020, and that given the suspension of its work and the scale and the complexity of the dispute, it did not expect to be in a position to complete its work before the third quarter of 2021.

 

Withdrawal/termination

On 18 February 2021, Brazil requested the Chair of the DSB to circulate a communication where Brazil notified the DSB of its decision to withdraw its complaint and therefore requested the panel to indefinitely suspend its work pursuant to Article 12.12 of the DSU. Brazil apprised the DSB that it maintained the view that the measures challenged in this dispute were inconsistent with several provisions of the SCM Agreement, as set out in its panel request, and that this notification was without prejudice to Brazil's right to challenge those measures in future WTO dispute settlement proceedings.