United States – Certain Country of
Origin Labelling (COOL) Requirements
Recourse by canada to Article 22.7 of the DSU
The following communication,
dated 7 December 2015, from the delegation of Canada to the Chairperson of the
Dispute Settlement Body, is circulated pursuant to Article 22.7 of the DSU.
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Canada submits this request, pursuant to Article 22.7 of the Dispute
Settlement Understanding ("DSU"), for authorization from the Dispute
Settlement Body (DSB) to suspend the application of certain tariff concessions
and related obligations to the United States under the GATT 1994 in the amount
of CDN $ 1,054.729 million on an annual basis, in connection with the continued
non-compliance of the United States with its WTO obligations in the US – COOL dispute.
On 29 May 2015, the
DSB adopted the Report of the Appellate Body (WT/DS384/AB/RW) and Report of the
Panel (WT/DS384/RW and WT/DS384/RW/Add.1), as modified by the Appellate Body
Report, in the compliance proceedings in this dispute. At the DSB meeting held on 17 June 2015,
pursuant to Article 22.2 of the DSU, Canada
requested authorization from the DSB to suspend the application of certain
tariff concessions to the United States (WT/DS384/35). The United States objected to the level of
suspension of concessions requested by Canada and the matter was referred to
arbitration under Article 22.6 of the DSU (WT/DS384/36).
In its decision
circulated on 7 December 2015 (WT/DS384/ARB), the arbitrator, composed under
Article 22.6 of the DSU, determined the level of nullification and impairment
suffered by Canada on an annual basis as a result of the COOL measure to be CDN
$ 1,054.729 million.
Article 22.7 of the
DSU provides that, "[t]he DSB shall […] upon request, grant authorization
to suspend concessions or other obligations where the request is consistent
with the decision of the arbitrator, unless the DSB decides by consensus to
reject the request." Accordingly,
Canada requests authorization to suspend the application of concessions and
related obligations to the United States in conformity with the decision of the
arbitrator referred to above. Canada will provide to the DSB a list of goods
and the level of the tariffs to be applied to those goods in due course.
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