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Cite-Checker's Guide: World Trade Organization

Agreements
Dispute Settlement Reports
Official Documents

This guide lists the most frequently cited WTO materials. If you don't find what you need here, consult the longer guide WTO and GATT Research.

AGREEMENTS Multilateral trade conventions under the GATT/WTO system are called "agreements." The current WTO system operates under agreements negotiated during the Uruguay Round, 1986-94. Negotiations are ongoing on certain topics). The Final Act of the Uruguay Round was signed in Marrakesh on April 15, 1994, and went into force on January 1, 1995. It contained a package of about 60 agreements, annexes, decisions, and understandings, including the Marrakesh Agreement ("WTO Agreement") establishing the WTO, the GATT 1994, the GATS, other agreements on services, and the TRIPS. The GATT 1994 incorporates by reference the GATT 1947 and related official instruments as amended up to the effective date of the WTO agreements.

Suggested official citations Rule 21.4.5 of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, 18th ed., requires a U.S. source, if therein, and a multilateral source, and a cite to I.L.M. if either of those cannot be obtained. As explained by the notes at the end of this guide, the following suggested citations of the Uruguay Round agreements differ from Bluebook Rule 21.8.4(d).

The publications used in these citations are located as follows:

The Legal Texts: The Results of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations (Cambridge, U.K.; New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press, 1999) Reserve K4603 1987 .A4 1999.

I.L.M. Compact Shelves JX27 A5 I5

U.N.T.S. Compact Shelves JX170 U35

Final Act Embodying the Results of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations, Apr. 15, 1994, THE LEGAL TEXTS: THE RESULTS OF THE URUGUAY ROUND OF MULTILATERAL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS 2 (1999), 1867 U.N.T.S. 14, 33 I.L.M. 1143 (1994) [hereinafter Final Act].
WTO Agreement:
Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, Apr. 15, 1994, THE LEGAL TEXTS: THE RESULTS OF THE URUGUAY ROUND OF MULTILATERAL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS 4 (1999), 1867 U.N.T.S. 154, 33 I.L.M. 1144 (1994) [hereinafter Marrakesh Agreement or WTO Agreement].
GATT 1994:
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994, Apr. 15, 1994, Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, Annex 1A, THE LEGAL TEXTS: THE RESULTS OF THE URUGUAY ROUND OF MULTILATERAL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS 17 (1999), 1867 U.N.T.S. 187, 33 I.L.M. 1153 (1994) [hereinafter GATT 1994].
Agreement on Agriculture, Apr. 15, 1994, Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, Annex 1A, THE LEGAL TEXTS: THE RESULTS OF THE URUGUAY ROUND OF MULTILATERAL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS 33 (1999), 1867 U.N.T.S. 410. [Not reproduced in I.L.M.]
TRIMS Agreement:
Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures, Apr. 15, 1994, Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, Annex 1A, THE LEGAL TEXTS: THE RESULTS OF THE URUGUAY ROUND OF MULTILATERAL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS 143 (1999), 1868 U.N.T.S. 186 [hereinafter TRIMS Agreement]. [Not reproduced in I.L.M.]
Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, Apr. 15, 1994, Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, Annex 1A, THE LEGAL TEXTS: THE RESULTS OF THE URUGUAY ROUND OF MULTILATERAL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS 275 (1999), 1867 U.N.T.S. 14. [Not reproduced in I.L.M.]
GATS:
General Agreement on Trade in Services, Apr. 15, 1994, Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, Annex 1B, THE LEGAL TEXTS: THE RESULTS OF THE URUGUAY ROUND OF MULTILATERAL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS 284 (1999), 1869 U.N.T.S. 183, 33 I.L.M. 1167 (1994) [hereinafter GATS].
TRIPS:
Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, Apr. 15, 1994, Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, Annex 1C, THE LEGAL TEXTS: THE RESULTS OF THE URUGUAY ROUND OF MULTILATERAL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS 320 (1999), 1869 U.N.T.S. 299, 33 I.L.M. 1197 (1994) [hereinafter TRIPS Agreement].
DSU, Dispute Settlement Rules:
Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes, Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, Annex 2, THE LEGAL TEXTS: THE RESULTS OF THE URUGUAY ROUND OF MULTILATERAL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS 354 (1999), 1869 U.N.T.S. 401, 33 I.L.M. 1226 (1994) [hereinafter DSU].

U.S. sources
Bluebook, 18th ed., Rule 21.8.4(d) and the suggested citations above do not include any U.S. treaty sources. The U.S. did not ratify the Uruguay Round agreements as treaties, but instead implemented them through legislation and administrative action. See also the notes below. Official sources are:

Uruguay Round Agreements Act, Pub. L. 103-465, 108 Stat. 4809 (1994), 19 U.S.C. 3501 and other sections listed in the U.S.C. Tables and the short title note under 19 U.S.C.A. 3501.
Statutes at Large: B1 KF50 .U5
U.S.C.: B1 KF62
U.S.C.A.: MRR, Brown Atrium, Furman Hall
Uruguay Round Trade Agreements, Text of Agreements, Implementing Bill, Statement of Administrative Action, and Required Supporting Statements: Message from the President of the United States Transmitting the Uruguay Round Trade Agreements, Texts of Agreements, Implementing Bill, Statement of Administrative Action and Required Supporting Statements. H.R. Doc. No. 103-316 (1994).
Reserve K4603 1987 .A3x 1994 (2 vols).
Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States <www.usitc.gov/tata/hts/bychapter/index.htm>

Also published in looseleaf format. U.S. International Trade Commission. Washington, D.C., 1987-. B1 KF6654.599 .U55
For administrative rules and regulations:
      Federal Register:
      Recent daily issues B2 South NYUL KA-A 4
      WESTLAW
      LexisNexis
      Hein Online, 1947-1990 (subsequent years are being added)
      GPO Access <www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/index.html>

      Code of Federal Regulations
      Furman Hall NYUL KA-A 41
      WESTLAW
      LexisNexis
      GPO Access <www.gpoaccess.gov/cfr/>

Standard unofficial sources

International Legal Materials (I.L.M.) American Society of International Law, 1962-. Be sure that the agreement you need to cite is actually reproduced in the source you are citing. See 33 I.L.M. 1141-42 for a list of the agreements reproduced in that volume.
Compact Shelves JX 27 A5 I5.
Also in WESTLAW (ILM) and Ejournals.
Bluebook, 18th ed., Rule 21.4.5(c) permits you to cite another unofficial source, including an official website such as the official WTO website < www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/legal_e.htm >

GATT 1947

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, Oct. 30, 1947, 61 Stat. A-11, T.I.A.S. 1700, 55 U.N.T.S. 194.
Protocol of Provisional Application, T.I.A.S. 1700, 55 U.N.T.S. 308. Also reproduced in the one-volume The Legal Texts... cited in the suggested citations.

DISPUTE SETTLEMENT REPORTS

Rules: the DSU and other rules

Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes, Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, Annex 2, THE LEGAL TEXTS: THE RESULTS OF THE URUGUAY ROUND OF MULTILATERAL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS 354 (1999), 1869 U.N.T.S. 401, 33 I.L.M. 1226 (1994) [hereinafter DSU].
The WTO Dispute Settlement Procedures: A Collection of the Relevant Legal Texts. 2d ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Reserve K4600 .W67x 2001
DSU, other rules and procedures on the WTO website <www.wto.org>
>Trade Topics>Dispute Settlement>Legal Basis
See also A Handbook on the WTO Dispute Settlement System. WTO Legal Affairs Division and the Appellate Body. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Reserve K4610 .W67 2004

Reports: sources and citation There are many places to read the GATT and WTO dispute panel and appellate body reports. Paragraphs in the reports are numbered. A neutral citation to a paragraph number may be helpful to a reader who is using a different source than the one you are citing.

Note: To be sure that you are using the complete official texts, use the texts on the WTO website.

BISD, if therein*. See Official Documents for more information.

Tip: First search BISD in LexisNexis Intl Law>Treaties & Intl Agreements before consulting the hardcopy volumes.
1995-current: B1 K4602 .G46
pre-1995: Compact Shelves NYUL KE G35 C65 B2
*So far, the new WTO series of BISD (1995-) has not published any of the dispute reports. The WTO has authorized the pagination in the Dispute Settlement Reports (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2000-), which contains reports starting with 1996.
B1 K4600 .A53 W67x
WTO website <www.wto.org>
To find them chronologically, by country or by subject, go to
>Trade Topics>Dispute Settlement>The disputes
To search them by keywords, etc., go to
>Documents>Official documents>Search.
International Legal Materials (I.L.M.) American Society of International Law, 1962-. Compact Shelves JX 27 A5 I5. Also in WESTLAW (ILM) and Ejournals.
Other widely available sources, such as the following, can be used for citation and also for full-text searching of the reports by keywords, topics, etc.

WESTLAW: WTO-DEC: GATT and WTO decisions, 1948-
LexisNexis:
Topic>International law >Find Statutes, Regulations & Administrative materials & regulations >Regulations & Agency Decisions >Agency Decisions>GATT panel and World Trade Organization decisions, 1948-
WorldTradeLaw.net <www.worldtradelaw.net>
Contains the trade agreements; a search engine for the dispute reports; commentaries on the dispute reports; and the Case-Law Index, a topical digest of the WTO dispute reports. Some content requires a subscription.

World Trade Organization Dispute Settlement Decisions: Bernan's Annotated Reporter. Lanham, Md.: Bernan Press, vols. 1-69.
Full-text of the reports, plus a subject index and finding tools (by country, articles of the agreements, other WTO documents and reports cited in the reports). The Law Library has 1996-2005.
Compact Shelves JZ5185 .D577x 1998

International Trade Law Reports. Ed. Ulick Bourke and Robin Griffith. London, U.K.: Cameron May, 1996-. Reports plus editorial commentary. The Law Library has 1996-mid 2007.
Reserve K4600.A495 I58x

SICE, Foreign Trade Information System of the OAS. <www.sice.oas.org> Dispute Settlement
>Documents>Official documents>Search.
Other useful tools for finding disputes by topic, etc.

WTO Decisions: A Comprehensive Topical Index. Eds. C. Christopher Parlin, David Stewart Christy, Jr., and Marcus A. Kraker. London, U.K.: Cameron May, 2004-.   ON ORDER FOR RESERVE
The Analytical Index for GATT and for WTO can be used to identify dispute reports by articles of the agreements.

          o Guide to GATT Law and Practice: Analytical Index. Updated 6th ed . Geneva: WTO and Bernan Press, 1995. Two vols. Covers only the GATT and only up to January 1, 1995. Arranged by GATT articles and also has a subject index.
            Reference K4603 1947.A44 G85 1995
            Also available on a CDROM co-published by WTO and Bernan Press.

          o WTO Analytical Index: Guide to WTO Law and Practice
            The print volume covers from January 1, 1995 to June 30, 2001. The online version covers January 1, 1995, through 2002.
            <www.wto.org/english/res_e/booksp_e/analytic_index_e/analytic_index_e.htm>
            Find discussion of your topic by browsing the articles of the agreements, country names, product names, and legal topics.

            Hardcopy: WTO Analytical Index: Guide to WTO Law and Practice. 1st ed. Geneva: WTO Publications; Lanham, Md.: Bernan, 2003. Two vols. Subject index.
            Reference and Reserve K4610.A23 W86 2003

            NOTE: A 2d hardcopy edition covering through 2004 is forthcoming.

WTO Appellate Body Repertory of Reports and Awards, 1995-2006. 3d ed. Compiled by the Appellate Body Secretariat. Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Reserve K4610 .A7 W67 2007
Online version covers through 2005 <www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/repertory_e/repertory_e.htm>
NOTE: A 3d edition, covering 1995-2006, is forthcoming.

Handbook of WTO/GATT Dispute Settlement. Pierre Pescatore, William J. Davey & Andreas Lowenfeld. Ardsley, N.Y.: Transnational Publishers, Inc., 1991-. Looseleaf.
Reserve K4602.2 1991

BNA Online Services The WTO Reporter, International Trade Daily and International Trade Reporter may have summaries of new WTO dispute rulings, often within one day after the ruling is issued.

OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS

WTO bodies issue thousands of documents each year, such as notifications, minutes and dispute settlement reports. The same was true of the GATT.
Unlike U.N. documents, GATT and WTO documents have never been sold or distributed to libraries in large paper collections.
Some documents are restricted and may later be derestricted.
BISD is the official compilation of documents in hardcopy, but it contains only a selected number of documents and is published several years behind the date of the documents.
The microfiche, the WTO website's Documents Gateway and the Stanford University Libraries GATT Digital Library contain many more documents than BISD.
Document symbols are explained in Documents Online <docsonline.wto.org/ >Help >Document Nomenclature.

GATT and WTO official document sources
See below for details. "Selected" means that the source contains only selected documents for that category.

DATES	PRINT	MICROFICHE	ELECTRONIC
GATT 1947-96	BISD 1947-95 (selected)	1947-96	BISD 1947-95 (selected) on cdrom and LexisNexis GATT Documents , 1947-1996 (under construction) GATT Digital Library: 1947-94 at Stanford Univ. Libraries Documents Online (very selective)
Uruguay Round 1986-94			Documents Online (selected). Use Advanced Search and type UR in the Collection field. GATT Documents , 1947-1996 (under construction) GATT Digital Library: 1947-94 at Stanford Univ. Libraries
WTO 1995-present	BISD 1995- (selected)	1995-96	Documents Online 1995-

WTO documents, 1995-present

BISD. [WTO] Basic Instruments and Selected Documents. Geneva: World Trade Organization; Lanham, Md.: Bernan, 2002- (covering 1995-). B1 K4602 .G46
BISD is the official compilation of documents in hardcopy, but it contains only selected documents and is several years behind in publication. The WTO series of BISD starts with 1995. Each volume has an index.
Documents Online <docsonline.wto.org/> Over 150,000 documents in the three official languages, English, French and Spanish, from 1995 to present, with selected documents from 1986-94, primarily Uruguay Round documents. For help, click on the ? next to any search field and consult the manual by clicking on the Help button. Also has quick links to the legal agreements, the schedules and the dispute settlement reports. Read the Help screens for important information about downloading and printing; you should download before printing. These documents are html and Word and may omit tables and graphs.
Documents from WTO bodies, meetings, etc. are collected in Documents Online <docsonline.wto.org> Browse documents >Frequently consulted >Official records

GATT and early WTO documents, 1947-1996

BISD. Basic Instruments and Selected Documents and BISD Supplements. Geneva: Contracting Parties to the GATT, 1952-98 (covering 1947-95). Compact Shelves NYUL KE G35 C65 B2
BISD is the official compilation of documents in hardcopy, but it contains only selected documents. This first series of BISD covers 1947-1995. (Note: After the first four volumes in this series, all volumes were called supplements. The citation 42S/38 means supplement 42, at page 38.) The subject index at the back of supplement 42 covers all the supplements. This series of BISD is searchable on a cdrom at Circulation NYUL KE G35 C65 B2 and also in LexisNexis Intl Law>Treaties & Intl Agreements>GATT Basic Instruments and Selected Documents.
Microfiche GATT/WTO Documents. Geneva: WTO, 1947-96. This very large collection of microfiche documents covers from the negotiation of the GATT and the Havana Charter through 1996. It has very few Uruguay Round (MTN/...) documents; instead search in the Documents Online (use Advanced Search and type UR in the Collection field), or the Stanford GATT Digital Library: 1947-94. The fiche is accessible via a hardcopy index of subjects, document symbols, product names, country names, and articles of the agreements. The fiche and the index are located in the Media Center.
GATT Documents 1947-1995. <www.wto.org/english/docs_e/gattdocs_e.htm> On this webpage, which is a work in progress, the WTO is making public all official documents issued under the GATT, 1947-95. Browse the documents by document symbol or date, or open the the catalog (list of dates and document titles) and do a Ctrl-F search for keyword in title. For more Uruguay Round documents, 1986-1994, search the Documents Online <docsonline.wto.org> which is linked from this page (use Advanced Search and type UR in the Collection field), or the Stanford GATT Digital Library: 1947-94.
GATT Digital Library: 1947-94 Stanford University Libraries. Search, browse, view, and download from this collection of over 59,000 documents and publications of the GATT from 1947-1994. At this time, most of the documents are in English. Search full text, title, date, and document symbol. Searching, viewing and downloading are free of charge. The GATT Documents page also has link to the Stanford documents.
About 4,000 Uruguay Round documents, 1986-1994, can be searched via the Documents Online <docsonline.wto.org>. Use Advanced Search and type UR in the Collection field.

Notes on official citation of the trade agreements.

1. Multilateral sources

Legal Instruments..., the source used in the Bluebook before the 18th edition, is vol. 1 of a 34-volume set entitled Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations: Legal Instruments Embodying the Results of the Uruguay Round. The law library does not own this set, nor do many other libraries. Instead, the law library and other libraries own a reprint of volume 1 separately published either as The Legal Texts: The Results of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations (Cambridge, U.K.; New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press, 1999), Reserve K4603 1987 A.4 1999, or as Results of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations: The Legal Texts (Geneva: GATT Secretariat, 1994). This is the source used in the suggested citations above.
Unlike the United Nations, there is no separate GATT or WTO treaty series. In general, the official hardcopy sources of GATT and WTO materials are the GATT BISD Basic Instruments and Selected Documents and the BISD Supplements, and now the WTO BISD, if the treaty you need to cite has been published therein.

As of this writing, however, the Uruguay Round agreements have not been published in BISD. Instead, BISD (41st Supp., vol. I) at iv n.1 (1997, covering 1994), refers to the one-volume reprint described in the first paragraph of these notes, and this is the source used in the suggested citations above. The GATT previously published agreements in similar standalone volumes, e.g., The Texts of the Tokyo Round.
The Bluebook examples do not include citations to U.N.T.S., the United Nations Treaty Series. Because U.N.T.S. is widely available, it has been added to the suggested citations.
"Legal instruments" or "legal texts" generally refers to the agreements published along with related official declarations, understandings, etc. If you need to read or cite an interpretive note, decision, declaration, act, understanding, amendment, or other document that is not published in any of the sources discussed here, then search for it as a GATT or WTO official documents.

2. U.S. sources

Treaties in Force...on January 1, 2005, lists the Uruguay Round Agreements but without T.I.A.S. or U.S.T. citations. To determine if citations to T.I.A.S. or U.S.T. are assigned in the future, check later editions of Treaties in Force, Treaty Actions <www.state.gov/s/l/treaty/c3428.htm>, the Treaty Actions page of the Department of State website, or a treaty guides such as A Guide to the United States Treaties in Force (Ed. I. Kavass, Buffalo, N.Y.: William S. Hein & Co., Inc.) under K AV numbers 4042, 4048, 4051, and 4045.

This page was updated December 05, 2007

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Cite-Checker's Guide: World Trade Organization