WTO Appellate Body Reports and other appellate decisions

  • The reports and decisions provided on this page consist of all those circulated to WTO Members (incorporating any official corrigenda). The list is updated immediately after each new report/decision is circulated. Appellate Body reports are indicated by "(AB)" in the "Decision" column; appellate awards pursuant to the DSU Article 25 arbitration mechanism are indicated by "(25)". Note that Article 25 awards are not adopted by the DSB.
  • Click on a column header to SORT. Drag column header to top left to GROUP. Click on to FILTER by term/date. Enter date in m/d/yyyy format. (See additional instructions and explanatory notes.)
  • The total number of disputes, in terms of officially established DS Numbers, is indicated at the bottom of the table (as the number of Records). The number is recalculated each time a filter search is performed.
  • All complaints are in PDF format. To view the PDF files, you will need the free Acrobat Reader, which can be downloaded from Adobe.
  • The last column is a link to our Dispute Settlement Commentary for the decision, and is only accessible to subscribers.

 

 

 

Search Instructions                    /         Back to top

Field Explanation

"Decision"

 This field indicates the abbreviated title of the dispute, and provides a link to the Appellate Body report or Article 25 appellate award.

"Appellant"

 This field indicates the WTO Member who filed the original notice of appeal pursuant to Working Procedures for Appellate Review Rule 20(1).  Note that when filtering, "United States" and "European Union/Communities" must be spelled out, rather than abbreviated as EC/EU/U.S.
"Other Appellant" This field indicates the WTO Member(s) who filed an appeal pursuant to Working Procedures for Appellate Review Rule 23(1).  Note that when filtering, "United States" and "European Union/Communities" must be spelled out, rather than abbreviated as EC/EU/U.S.
"Appellee" This field indicates the WTO Member(s) who filed an appellee's submission, as a response to another Member's appellant's submission under Rule 20(1) or Rule 23(1), pursuant to Working Procedures for Appellate Review Rule 22(1) or 23(3).  Note that when filtering, "United States" and "European Union/Communities" must be spelled out, rather than abbreviated as EC/EU/U.S.

"DS Number"

 This field indicates the official WTO DS Number for the dispute.
"Circulation Start Date"
and
"Circulation End Date"		 To filter by the "Circulation Start Date" and "Circulation End Date" fields, simply select the desired date for either or both entries. If a selection is made for "Circulation Start Date" only, the filter will retrieve all awards circulated after that date.  If a selection is made for "Circulation End Date" only, the filter will retrieve all awards circulated before that date.  If selections are made for both "Circulation Start Date" and "Circulation End Date," the filter will retrieve all awards circulated between those dates.
"Adoption Start Date"
and
"Adoption End Date"		 To filter by the "Adoption Start Date" and "Adoption End Date" fields, simply select the desired date for either or both entries. If a selection is made for "Start Date" only, the filter will retrieve all awards adopted on or after that date.  If a selection is made for "Adoption End Date" only, the filter will retrieve all awards adopted on or before that date.  If selections are made for both "Adoption Start Date" and "Adoption End Date," the filter will retrieve all awards adopted on and between those dates.
"Agreements" This field indicates the WTO agreements at issue.  The full titles of the abbreviations used can be found below.
"AB Division/Arbitrator" For Appellate Body reports, this field provides the last names of the Appellate Body Members who served on the appeal; for Article 25 Arbitrations, it provides the last names of the arbitrators.

Explanatory Notes

  • After the Appellate Body appointments crisis shut down the Appellate Body in 2020, a group of WTO Members decided to use DSU Article 25 arbitration to hear appeals.

  • This list contains both normal disputes and Article 21.5 compliance disputes, the latter indicated by "Article 21.5" in the dispute name.

  • In China - Auto Parts (2008), the Appellate Body issued three separate reports in a single document.

  • In Philippines - Distilled Spirits (2011), the Appellate Body issued two separate reports in a single document.

  • In China - Raw Materials (2012), the Appellate Body issued three separate reports in a single document.

  • In US - COOL (2012), the Appellate Body issued two separate reports in a single document.

  • In EC - Bananas, Article 21.5 II (AB) (Ecuador) / Article 21.5 (AB) (U.S.) (2008), the Appellate Body issued two separate reports in a single document.  The report in relation to the Ecuador complaint was adopted on December 11, 2008, as indicated in the table.  However, the report in relation to the U.S. complaint was adopted on December 22, 2008.

  • AB Division is the division of the Appellate Body hearing the appeal.  The first name listed is the Presiding Member of the division.  The next two names are the two other Members of the division. The full names of the past and present Appellate Body Members listed above can be found on our Appellate Body Members page.

  • For those Appellate Body reports that have been adopted, Adoption Date provides the date the report was adopted by the DSB.  Please note that the date on the cover page of the report itself is the Circulation Date. Article 25 appellate decisions are not adopted by the DSB.

  • The "Agreements" column indicates which of the covered agreements were the subject of findings and conclusions by the Appellate Body.  The full titles of the abbreviations used above are:

AD - Agreement on Implementation of Article VI of the GATT 1994 (Antidumping Agreement)

Agriculture - Agreement on Agriculture

ATC - Agreement on Textiles and Clothing

Customs - Agreement on Implementation of Article VII of the GATT 1994 (Customs Valuation Agreement)

DSU - Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes (Dispute Settlement Understanding)

GATS - General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)

GATT - General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)

GPA - Agreement on Government Procurement

Licensing - Agreement on Import Licensing Procedures

Origin - Agreement on Rules of Origin

Safeguards - Agreement on Safeguards

SCM - Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures

SPS - Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement)

TBT - Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement)

TRIMs - TRIMs Agreement (Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures)

TRIPS - Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement)

WTO - Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (WTO Agreement)