INTRODUCTION

Complaints of Japan and the European Union

On 13 September 2010, Japan requested consultations with Canada pursuant to Article 4 of the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes (the “DSU”), Article XXII:1 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (the “GATT 1994”), Article 8 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures (the “TRIMs Agreement”), and Articles 4.1 and 30 of the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (the “SCM Agreement”). On 11 August 2011, the European Union requested consultations with Canada pursuant to the same, above-mentioned provisions. In both complaints, the consultations concerned certain measures relating to domestic content requirements in the feed-in tariff programme (the “FIT Programme”), established by the Canadian Province of Ontario. These measures included the following: (i) the Electricity Act of 1998; (ii) the Green Energy and Green Economy Act of 2009; (iii) the Electricity Restructuring Act of 2004; (iv) the Ontario Regulation 578/05; (v) the Independent Electricity System Operator (the “IESO”) Market Manual; (vi) the IESO Market Rules; (vii) the FIT direction dated 24 September 2009 from the Deputy Premier and Minister of Energy and Infrastructure; (viii) individual FIT and microFIT Contracts executed by the Ontario Power Authority (the “OPA”); (ix) the FIT Rules and microFIT Rules issued by the OPA; (x) the FIT and microFIT Contracts issued by the OPA; (xi) the FIT Application Form and the online microFIT Application issued by the OPA; (xii) the FIT and microFIT Price Schedules issued by the OPA; (xiii) the FIT Programme Interpretations of the Domestic Content Requirements; and (xiv) any amendments or extensions of the foregoing, any replacement, renewal, implementing or related measures.

Consultations were held between Japan and Canada on 25 October 2010, and between the European Union and Canada on 7 September 2011. These consultations failed to resolve the disputes.