§3537 — Title 19 Customs Duties | U.S. Code

Summary

When the United States is a party in a WTO dispute panel or on appeal, the U.S. Trade Representative must talk with the right congressional committees, the petitioner (if there is one), and the private sector advisory groups, and listen to interested private and nonprofit groups. Right after asking for a panel or after another country asks for one, the Trade Representative must quickly publish a Federal Register notice that names the parties, sums up the main issues and legal basis, identifies the specific measures or laws at issue, and asks the public for written comments. The advice and comments must be considered when preparing U.S. filings. The Trade Representative must make U.S. written submissions public soon after filing, except for proprietary or foreign-government confidential material. The Trade Representative should ask other parties to allow their filings to be public and must post panel and Appellate Body reports as soon as they are circulated to WTO members. If a party has not made its filings public, the Trade Representative must ask for nonconfidential summaries and post them. A public file for each dispute must be kept, showing U.S. submissions, public comments sent to the Trade Representative, and the panel and Appellate Body reports.

Title 19, §3537

Customs Duties — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Whenever the United States is a party before a dispute settlement panel established pursuant to Article 6 of the Dispute Settlement Understanding, the Trade Representative shall, at each stage of the proceeding before the panel or the Appellate Body, consult with the appropriate congressional committees, the petitioner (if any) under section 2412(a) of this title with respect to the matter that is the subject of the proceeding, and relevant private sector advisory committees established under section 2155 of this title, and shall consider the views of representatives of appropriate interested private sector and nongovernmental organizations concerning the matter.

(b)In any proceeding described in subsection (a), the Trade Representative shall—

(1)promptly after requesting the establishment of a panel, or receiving a request from another WTO member country for the establishment of a panel, publish a notice in the Federal Register—

(A)identifying the initial parties to the dispute,

(B)setting forth the major issues raised by the country requesting the establishment of a panel and the legal basis of the complaint,

(C)identifying the specific measures, including any State or Federal law cited in the request for establishment of the panel, and

(D)seeking written comments from the public concerning the issues raised in the dispute; and

(2)take into account any advice received from appropriate congressional committees and relevant private sector advisory committees referred to in subsection (a), and written comments received pursuant to paragraph (1)(D), in preparing United States submissions to the panel or the Appellate Body.

(c)In each proceeding described in subsection (a), the Trade Representative shall—

(1)make written submissions by the United States referred to in subsection (b) available to the public promptly after they are submitted to the panel or Appellate Body, except that the Trade Representative is authorized to withhold from disclosure any information contained in such submissions identified by the provider of the information as proprietary information or information treated as confidential by a foreign government;

(2)request each other party to the dispute to permit the Trade Representative to make that party’s written submissions to the panel or the Appellate Body available to the public; and

(3)make each report of the panel or the Appellate Body available to the public promptly after it is circulated to WTO members, and inform the public of such availability.

(d)In any dispute settlement proceeding conducted pursuant to the Dispute Settlement Understanding, the Trade Representative shall request each party to the dispute to provide nonconfidential summaries of its written submissions, if that party has not made its written submissions public, and shall make those summaries available to the public promptly after receiving them.

(e)The Trade Representative shall maintain a file accessible to the public on each dispute settlement proceeding to which the United States is a party that is conducted pursuant to the Dispute Settlement Understanding. The file shall include all United States submissions in the proceeding and a listing of any submissions to the Trade Representative from the public with respect to the proceeding, as well as the report of the dispute settlement panel and the report of the Appellate Body.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification Section is comprised of section 127 of Pub. L. 103–465. Subsec. (f) of section 127 of Pub. L. 103–465 amended section 2155 of this title.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

Section effective on the date on which the WTO Agreement enters into force with respect to the United States (Jan. 1, 1995), see section 130 of Pub. L. 103–465, set out as a note under section 3531 of this title.

§3537 Access to WTO dispute settlement process