Almost any person involved in WTO legal issues consults regularly the WTO analytical index to see what panels and the Appellate Body said about a provision.
The Index presents itself as " the authoritative guide to the interpretation and application of findings and decisions of WTO panels, the WTO Appellate Body and other WTO bodies".
While doing some research on the thorny issue of what is an "income and price support" in the context of Article 1 of the SCM, I was obliged to consult the GATT Analytical Index about this issue. I found there that this Index considers that Interpretative Note 2 added to paragraph 3 of Article XVI of GATT is relevant for interpreting the meaning of the expression "price or income support" which appears in Articlel XVI:1 and not in Article XVI:3 to which the interpretative note is added.
So my point is: Let us suppose thay you find in the WTO analytical index a reference to a provision in a certain context that is not obvious from a legal point of view, at least in your opinion. What is exactly the "authoritative" value of this reference? I have tried to find an answer to this question in the introduction of the Index. Unfortunately, the Index is silent on this matter, even if parties refer frequently to the Index in their pleadings.
To make my point clearer, is the following reference to the Analytical Index made by Canada in the dairy case, legitimate?
Canada noted that the GATT ANALYTICAL INDEX, 1995, at p. 445 directed the reader to "Interpretative Note 2 ad Paragraph 3 of Article XVI" for the interpretation of the phrase "including any form of income or price support", as it was used in Paragraph 1 of Article XVI. This clearly reflected an accepted interpretative approach to the provisions of Article XVI.