INTRODUCTION

On 6 April 1998, Poland requested consultations with Thailand pursuant to Article 17.3 of the Agreement on the Implementation of Article VI of GATT 1994 (“the AD Agreement”) and Article 4 of the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes (“the DSU”) regarding Thailand's imposition of final anti-dumping duties on imports of angles, shapes and sections of iron or nonalloy steel: H-beams (“H-beams”) originating in Poland. Poland and Thailand held consultations on 29 May 1998 but failed to reach a mutually satisfactory resolution of the matter.

On 13 October 1999, pursuant to Articles 4 and 6 of the DSU and Article 17 of the AD Agreement, Poland requested the establishment of a Panel to examine the matter.

At its meeting on 19 November 1999, the Dispute Settlement Body (“the DSB”) established a Panel in accordance with Poland's request. At that meeting, the parties to the dispute also agreed that the Panel should have standard terms of reference. The terms of reference therefore are the following:

On 20 December 1999, the parties to the dispute agreed on the following composition of the Panel:

The European Communities, Japan and the United States reserved their rights to participate in the panel proceedings as third parties.

The Panel met with the parties on 7-8 March 2000 and 12 April 2000. It met with the third parties on 8 March 2000.

On 31 May 2000, the Panel provided its interim report to the parties. On 9 and 13 June 2000, respectively, Poland and Thailand submitted written requests for review by the Panel of precise aspects of the interim report. On 15 June 2000, the parties submittedwritten comments on one anothers’ requests for interim review. Section VI, infra, describes the interim review requests and comments received, and the changes made to the report in response to those comments.