INTRODUCTION

Complaint of the United States

On 15 September 2010, the United States requested consultations with China pursuant to Articles 1 and 4 of the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes (DSU) and Article XXII of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) with respect to the measures and claims set out below.

Establishment and Composition of the Panel

On 11 February 2011, the United States requested the establishment of a panel pursuant to Article 6 of the DSU with standard terms of reference. At its meeting on 25 March 2011, the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) established a panel pursuant to the request of the United States in document WT/DS413/2, in accordance with Article 6 of the DSU. The Panel's terms of reference are the following:

On 23 June 2011, the United States requested the Director-General to determine the composition of the panel, pursuant to Article 8.7 of the DSU. On 4 July 2011, the Director-General accordingly composed the Panel as follows:

Australia, Ecuador, the European Union, Guatemala, India, Japan, and the Republic of Korea reserved their rights to participate in the Panel proceedings as third parties.

Panel Proceedings

On 5 July 2011, China submitted to the Panel a request for a preliminary ruling with respect to the consistency of certain aspects of the United States’ panel request with Article 6.2 of the DSU. The Panel issued its preliminary ruling to the parties, with a copy to the third parties, on 7 September 2011. The Panel held a first substantive meeting with the parties on 26-27 October 2011. A session with the third parties took place on 27 October 2011. The Panel held a second substantive meeting with the parties on 13-14 December 2011. On 25 January 2012, the Panel issued the descriptive part of its Panel Report.