Overview & Summaries Introductions The year 2018 marked the 70th anniversary of the provisional application of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT 1947). Although it was intended to be applied on a provisional basis, the GATT 1947 governed international trade for almost half a century. Its principles, rules and procedures evolved over this period to respond to the changing needs and challenges of GATT contracting parties, providing the basis for today''s strengthened international trade rules under the GATT''s successor, the World Trade Organization (WTO). The settlement of disputes under the GATT 1947 has been the subject of abundant academic literature. However, there has been no verified, comprehensive compilation of all information concerning GATT disputes from 1 January 1948, when the GATT started to be applied through the Protocol of Provisional Application, until its termination one year after the entry into force of the Marrakesh Agreement establishing the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995. In fact, as explained below, there is no reliable record of how many disputes took place under the GATT. The importance of GATT dispute settlement has been acknowledged by WTO adjudicators3 who have affirmed its continued relevance for the WTO. In 1996, the Appellate Body held that "[a]dopted panel reports are an important part of the GATT acquis.
They are often considered by subsequent panels. They create legitimate expectations among WTO Members, and, therefore, should be taken into account where they are relevant to any dispute." In a similar vein, the Appellate Body noted that the reasoning of unadopted GATT panel reports (i.e. reports that GATT contracting parties were unable to adopt by consensus) may provide useful guidance for a WTO dispute panel. This publication consists of two volumes, which can be read independently. This first volume, "Overview and One-Page Case Summaries", provides a comprehensive overview of dispute settlement activities under the GATT 1947 and contains a one-page summary for each of the 316 GATT disputes identified. The second volume, "Dispute Settlement Procedures", compiles documents regarding relevant procedures and other selected documents.
The two volumes offer insights into the evolution of dispute settlement under the GATT 1947, which served as the foundation for the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) created by the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization. This publication represents the first comprehensive effort by the WTO Secretariat to consolidate information on all disputes covering the whole period of the GATT 1947, from 1948 until 1995. It relies on information from multiple sources, both public and internal records held by the GATT Secretariat, including information gathered by the WTO Legal Affairs Division and Market Access Division as well as the WTO Information Management Section. The systematic analysis of these primary sources has led to some significant discoveries and rarely mentioned information about GATT disputes. For instance, some of the information seems to call into question whether certain proceedings previously identified as GATT disputes actually qualify as such.6 The research has also uncovered a number of disputes that had not been listed in previous compilations, including one brought by Malawi, a least developed country, as well as the existence of a "secret" dispute in which the parties - India and Japan - chose not to disclose the details of their proceedings. A one-page case summary is devoted to each of the 316 GATT disputes identified by this publication. Each summary indicates the official title of the dispute and a unique GATT dispute (GD) number assigned for the purposes of this publication, according to the chronological order of the relevant request initiating the dispute.
The case summaries list the parties (complainants and defendants) and third parties to the dispute, and the products and types of products at issue. They also indicate any other titles under which the dispute has been referenced, as well as any related GATT or WTO disputes, when applicable. Under "key legal aspects", the case summaries identify the legal basis of each dispute, the dispute procedures followed and all provisions under which claims and defences were raised in the course of the dispute. If the dispute involved a contentious phase before an "adjudicator"1, the case summaries specify the type of body that dealt with the phase of the dispute in question (e.g. panel, working party, etc.), its Chairperson and other members, including their gender and origin by contracting party. If the dispute involved a report, the case summary specifies the type of report (e.
g. panel report), its status of adoption and its total number of pages as well as the number of pages of legal reasoning. In addition, the provisions under which claims and defences were at issue in the context of the report as well as the outcome of the report in regard to each such claim or defence is indicated. Furthermore, the case summaries show the timeline of each dispute, recording the date of each main step and referencing the relevant document(s). Finally, each case summary indicates the final outcome of the dispute.