It's hard to know what to make of a WTO panel decision like today's U.S. - AD Measures on Carrier Bags report. In a nutshell, Thailand alleged that the U.S. used "zeroing" in the anti-dumping proceeding at issue, in violation of the AD Agreement. In response, the U.S. did not contest the facts or the applicable law (see my post on the U.S. written submission in the case). In fact, the parties had a whole procedural agreement where they laid all of this out, including the period of time for implementation:
3. The United States will not contest Thailand's claim that the measures identified in the attached request for the establishment of a panel are inconsistent with the first sentence of Article 2.4.2 of the Anti-Dumping Agreement on the grounds stated in United States - Final Dumping Determination on Softwood Lumber from Canada, WT/DS264/AB/R (adopted 31 August 2004).
...
5. Provided that the panel's finding is limited to a finding that the measures identified in the attached request for the establishment of a panel are inconsistent with the first sentence of Article 2.4.2 of the Anti-Dumping Agreement, the parties agree that, pursuant to Article 21.3(b) of the DSU, the reasonable period of time for bringing each such measure into conformity with the Anti-Dumping Agreement will be six months, beginning on the date on which the DSB adopts the report of the panel.
(See http://docsonline.wto.org/DDFDocuments/t/WT/DS/383-4.doc) Thus, the U.S. would not contest the claim, the panel would find a violation, the U.S. would not appeal (presumably), and the implementation period would be six months.
So how to characterize such an approach by the parties and the panel? Is this akin to pleading "no contest"? I feel like someone out there could provide a nice theoretical framework to describe this situation, but it's beyond my capability.
Note that this is not the first time this has occurred. It was also the way the U.S. - Shrimp AD Measure (Ecuador) case was handled. (And that case had two of the same panelists as the Carrier Bags case!)
