Peru – Additional Duty on Imports of Certain
Agricultural Products
Communication from the Appellate Body
The following
notification, dated 22 May 2015, from the Chair of the Appellate Body addressed
to the Chair of the Dispute Settlement Body, is circulated to Members in
accordance with Article 17.5 of the Understanding on Rules and Procedures
Governing the Settlement of Disputes.
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I am writing to you
pursuant to Article 17.5 of the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing
the Settlement of Disputes, which stipulates that, as a general rule, the
Appellate Body will circulate its Report no later than 60 days after the
appellant has formally notified the Dispute Settlement Body (the
"DSB") of its decision to appeal. Article 17.5 states, furthermore,
that when the Appellate Body considers that it cannot provide its Report within
60 days, it shall inform the DSB in writing of the reasons for the delay
together with an estimate of the period within which it will submit its Report.
Peru notified the DSB on
25 March 2015 of its decision to appeal certain issues of law covered in the
Panel Report and legal interpretations developed by the Panel in this case,
with the result that the 60‑day period expires on Sunday, 24 May 2015. Due to
the time required for completion and translation of the Report, the Appellate
Body will not be able to circulate its Report by this date.
The Appellate Body has faced a
substantial workload in the first half of 2015, with several appeals proceeding
in parallel, and there has been overlap in the composition of the Divisions
hearing these different appeals during this period. Due to the
scheduling issues arising from these circumstances and the number and
complexity of the issues raised in this and concurrent appeal proceedings,
together with the demands that these concurrent appeals place on the
WTO Secretariat's translation services, and shortage of staff in the
Appellate Body Secretariat, the Appellate Body will not be able to circulate
its report in this dispute within the 90‑day timeframe provided for in
Article 17.5 of the DSU.
For these reasons, we estimate
that the Appellate Body report in this appeal will be circulated to
WTO Members no later than Monday, 20 July 2015.
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