On 13 July 2020, Colombia and the EU notified the WTO Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) that they had agreed on procedures for “arbitration under Article 25 of the DSU to decide any appeal from any final report” issued to the parties in dispute DS591.  Under those agreed procedures, a party’s notice of recourse to arbitration under Article 25 is described as a “notice of appeal”.

The panel's final report was issued to the parties on a confidential basis on 29 August 2022. On 12 September, Colombia asked the panel to suspend its work, thus not circulating the report.

Agreeing to the parties' request, the dispute panel did not circulate its final report, and instead transmitted it to the parties, who, by agreement, made it public as part of Colombia's “notice of appeal”. 

By resorting to an arbitration under Article 25 of the DSU, Colombia has chosen to use a mechanism to appeal the panel’s findings through an alternative means of dispute resolution foreseen by the DSU.

This is the first arbitration proceeding based on the Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement (MPIA) to which both Colombia and the European Union are participants.

The notice of recourse to arbitration is available here.

Summary of key findings of report

DS591: Colombia — Anti-Dumping Duties on Frozen Fries from Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands

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Just the findings and conclusions of the report in pdf format

In pdf format:

• Notice of recourse to arbitration and the panel report
• Addendum