INTRODUCTION

Complaint by Viet Nam

On 22 February 2012, Viet Nam requested consultations with the United States pursuant to Articles 1 and 4 of the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes (“DSU”), Article XXII:1 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (“GATT 1994”), and Articles 17.2 and 17.3 of the Agreement on Implementation of Article VI of GATT 1994 (“Anti-Dumping Agreement”) with respect to certain anti-dumping measures imposed by the United States in the context of the US anti-dumping proceedings on Certain Frozen Warmwater Shrimp from Vietnam (hereinafter “Shrimp”) as well as with respect to certain US laws and US Department of Commerce (“USDOC”) methodologies and practices.

Consultations were held on 28 March 2012 but failed to resolve the dispute.

Panel Establishment and Composition

On 20 December 2012, Viet Nam requested the establishment of a panel pursuant to Article 6 of the DSU, with standard terms of reference. At its meeting on 27 February 2013, the Dispute Settlement Body (“DSB”) established a panel pursuant to the request of Viet Nam in document WT/DS429/2/Rev.1 and Corrigenda 1 & 2, in accordance with Article 6 of the DSU.

The Panel's terms of reference are the following:

On 12 July 2013, the parties agreed that the panel would be composed as follows:

Chairperson: Mr Simon Farbenbloom

Members: Mr Adrian Makuc

Mr Abd El Rahman Ezz El Din Fawzy

China, Ecuador, the European Union, Japan, Norway and Thailand notified their interest in participating in the Panel proceedings as third parties.