 
  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/AB/WP/W/5 
18 September 2001 
 (01-6467) 
  
 
WORKING PROCEDURES FOR APPELLATE REVIEW  
 
Communication from the Appellate Body  
   The following communication was sent by th e Chairman of the Appellate Body to the 
Chairman of the Dispute Settlement Body on 18 Sept ember 2001.  At the time, hard copies were sent 
to Members but the communication was not circ ulated as an official WTO document.  The 
communication is now being circulated in conjunctio n with the introduction by the Appellate Body of 
a new numbering system for documents relating to the  Working Procedures for Appellate Review .  
This numbering system is explained in a communica tion from the Chairman of the Appellate Body to 
the Chair of the Dispute Settlement Body da ted 7 October 2004, circulated as document 
WT/AB/WP/W/9.   
_______________ 
 
  I refer to my memorandum of 10 July 2001, by which I consulted you, as 
contemplated in Article 17(9) of the DSU, on the following proposed amendment to Rule 5(2) of the 
Working Procedures for Appellate Review  (the " Working Procedures "): 
 
 The term of office of the Chairman of the Appellate Body shall be one 
year.  The Appellate Body Members may decide to extend the term of office of one year.  However, in order to ensure rotation of the 
Chairmanship, no Member shall serve as Chairman for more than two 
consecutive terms of one year. 
The proposed amendment was circulated to all WTO Members by the Chairman of the 
Dispute Settlement Body on 12 July 2001.  
The Appellate Body took careful note of the r eactions to the proposed amendment conveyed 
to it in the course of the consultations. 
 On 29 August 2001, the Appellate Body  amended Rule 5(2) of the  Working Procedures , so 
that it now reads as follows: 
 
 The term of office of the Chairman  of the Appellate Body shall be 
one year.  The Appellate Body Members may decide to extend the term of office for an additional period of up to one year.  However, in order to ensure rotation of th e Chairmanship, no Member shall 
serve as Chairman for more than two consecutive terms. 
 
The final version of the amendment is slightly different from the proposed version.  The final 
version is preferred to the orig inal proposal because the final ve rsion  provides clearly for the 
possibility of extending the term of office for a pe riod of one year, or for a shorter period.  The 
original proposal might have been interprete d as permitting extensions of  one year only. 
 
__________  