Composing the Seal Products Panel: Just How Long Did It Take?
Rob pointed us to the composition of the Seal Products panel yesterday. Everyone is probably aware that it took a long time to compose the panel. To be precise, based on the establishment date of April 21, 2011, when Norway's panel was established (Canada's was established the previous month), and the composition date of Oct 4, 2012, it took 532 days.
Many of you were probably wondering whether that's the longest it has ever taken to compose a panel. OK, well, maybe some of you were wondering anyway. All right, it was probably just me that was wondering. But regardless, I was wondering, so I looked it up. It turns out that Seal Products was the longest. Here are the runners-up (this is based on completed disputes -- I haven't checked disputes that are still ongoing or were suspended/abandoned):
| Dispute | Establishment |
Days between Establishment and Composition |
Composition |
|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. - Aircraft | Feb 17, 2006 | 278 | Nov 22, 2006 |
| U.S. - Tuna | Apr 20, 2009 | 238 | Dec 14, 2009 |
| EC - Chicken Classification (Brazil) | Nov 07, 2003 | 234 | Jun 28, 2004 |
| U.S. - Orange Juice (Brazil) | Sep 25, 2009 | 227 | May 10, 2010 |
| U.S. - "Zeroing" of Dumping Margins (DS294) | Mar 19, 2004 | 222 | Oct 27, 2004 |
| EC - Chicken Classification (Thailand) | Nov 21, 2003 | 220 | Jun 28, 2004 |