|
ON THIS PAGE:
> Brazil — Aircraft, para. 9
> Canada — Aircraft, para. 6
> Brazil — Aircraft, para. 119
> Brazil — Aircraft, paras. 123-125
|
B.4.1 Brazil —
Aircraft, para. 9 back to top
(WT/DS46/AB/R)
… by joint letter of 27 May 1999, Brazil
and Canada requested that the Appellate Body apply, mutatis
mutandis, the Procedures Governing Business Confidential
Information adopted by the Panel in this case. A preliminary hearing
on this issue was held on 10 June 1999, with this Division sitting
jointly with the Division of the Appellate Body hearing the appeal in Canada
— Measures Affecting the Export of Civilian Aircraft (“Canada
— Aircraft”), and a preliminary ruling was issued by this
Division on 11 June 1999.
B.4.2 Canada — Aircraft, para. 6
back to top
(WT/DS70/AB/R)
… by joint letter of 27 May 1999, Brazil
and Canada requested that the Appellate Body apply, mutatis
mutandis, the Procedures Governing Business Confidential
Information (the “BCI Procedures”) adopted by the Panel in this
case. A preliminary hearing on this issue was held on 10 June 1999,
with this Division sitting jointly with the Division of the Appellate
Body hearing the appeal in Brazil — Export Financing Programme
For Aircraft (“Brazil — Aircraft”), and a preliminary
ruling was issued by this Division on 11 June 1999.
B.4.3 Brazil — Aircraft, para. 119
back to top
(WT/DS46/AB/R)
Canada — Aircraft, para. 141
(WT/DS70/AB/R)
In our preliminary ruling of 11 June 1999,
we concluded that it is not necessary, under all the circumstances of
this case, to adopt additional procedures to protect business
confidential information in these appellate proceedings. Our ruling
was as follows:
… We also note that all Members are
obliged, by the provisions of the DSU, to treat these proceedings of
the Appellate Body, including written submissions and other documents
filed by the participants and the third participants, as confidential.
We are confident that the participants and the third participants in
this appeal will fully respect their obligations under the DSU,
recognizing that a Member’s obligation to maintain the
confidentiality of these proceedings extends also to the individuals
whom that Member selects to act as its representatives, counsel and
consultants. …
B.4.4 Brazil — Aircraft, paras. 123-125
back to top
(WT/DS46/AB/R)
Canada — Aircraft, paras. 145-147
(WT/DS70/AB/R)
In our view, the provisions of Articles 17.10 and 18.2 apply to all Members of the WTO, and oblige them to
maintain the confidentiality of any submissions or information
submitted, or received, in an Appellate Body proceeding. Moreover,
those provisions oblige Members to ensure that such confidentiality is
fully respected by any person that a Member selects to act as its
representative, counsel or consultant. In this respect, we note, with
approval, the following statement made by the panel in [Indonesia
— Automobiles]:
We would like to emphasize that all members
of parties’ delegations — whether or not they are government
employees — are present as representatives of their governments, and
as such are subject to the provisions of the DSU and of the standard
working procedures, including Articles 18.1 and 18.2 of the DSU and
paragraphs 2 and 3 of those procedures. In particular, parties are
required to treat as confidential all submissions to the Panel and all
information so designated by other Members; and, in addition, the
Panel meets in closed session. Accordingly, we expect that all
delegations will fully respect those obligations and will treat these
proceedings with the utmost circumspection and discretion.
(emphasis added) [Panel Report, Indonesia — Automobiles,
para. 14.1]
Finally, we wish to recall that Members of
the Appellate Body and its staff are covered by Article VII:1 of the Rules
of Conduct, which provides:
Each covered person shall at all times
maintain the confidentiality of dispute settlement deliberations and
proceedings together with any information identified by a party as
confidential. (emphasis added)
For these reasons, we do not consider that
it is necessary, under all the circumstances of this case, to adopt additional
procedures for the protection of business confidential information in
these appellate proceedings. …
|
The texts reproduced here do not have the legal standing of the original
documents which are entrusted and kept at the WTO Secretariat in Geneva.
|
