INTRODUCTION

Complaint of Korea

On 15 June 2000, Korea requested consultations with the United States pursuant to Article 4 of the Dispute Settlement Understanding (the “DSU”), Article XXII:1 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (the “GATT 1994”) and Article 14 of the Agreement on Safeguards (also the “Safeguards Agreement”, or “SA”) with regard to a definitive safeguard measure imposed by the United States on imports of circular welded carbon quality line pipe (the “line pipe measure”).

On 28 July 2000, Korea and the United States held the requested consultations, but failed to resolve the dispute.

On 14 September 2000, Korea requested the establishment of a panel to examine the matter.

Establishment and Composition of the Panel

At its meeting of 23 October 2000, the Dispute Settlement Body (the “DSB”) established a Panel pursuant to the request made by Korea in document WT/DS202/4.

At that meeting, the parties to the dispute also agreed that the Panel should have standard terms of reference, as follows:

On 12 January 2001, Korea requested the Director-General to determine the composition of the Panel, pursuant to Article 8.7 of the DSU. On 22 January 2001, the Director-General composed the Panel as follows:

Australia, Canada, the European Communities, Japan and Mexico, reserved their rights to participate in the panel proceedings as third parties.

FACTUAL ASPECTS

This dispute concerns a measure imposed by the United States on imports of circular welded carbon quality line pipe (“line pipe”). This measure was imposed following an investigation conducted by the United States International Trade Commission (“ITC”) in response to a petition filed on 30 June 1999 and amended on 2 July 1999, alleging that imports of line pipe were causing serious injury to the US manufacturers of line pipe.