AGLC4 Rule 13.1.2: Official WTO Documents

Official WTO documents other than panel, Appellate Body and arbitration reports are cited by italic title, WTO document number, full date, a document description where the document shows one, and a pinpoint. A date of adoption may be added. Pinpoints depend on the nature of the document: treaty-style pinpoints for resolutions, decisions, declarations, waivers and the like, and square-bracketed paragraph pinpoints for documents that are secondary sources in nature.

AGLC4 page 185

Format

Quoted from the Guide, page 185
(Full Date of Document, adopted Full Date of Adoption)

A boxed element is filled in with the source's details; everything outside a box is written exactly as shown.

Formatting

  • Order: italic title, comma, WTO Doc and the number, space, full date in round brackets, space, description in round brackets, space, pinpoint.
  • The title is italic and copied from the document, with no full stops in abbreviations (rule 1.6) and capitalisation under rule 1.7.
  • WTO Doc is roman with no full stop; two numbers joined by and take WTO Docs.
  • The document number follows rule 9.2.10: abbreviations lose full stops but the number is otherwise reproduced exactly, including its slashes and brackets.
  • Where the full date is not shown, as much of it as appears is given.
  • A date of adoption goes inside the same round brackets as the document date, after a comma and the lower case roman word adopted.
  • The description is roman and in its own round brackets after the date brackets, separated by a space with no comma; it is included only where the document shows one.
  • No comma comes before the pinpoint.
  • Treaty-like documents take rule 3.1.4 pinpoint abbreviations (para, paras, art, annex), with en dashes in ranges and a comma between separate items.
  • Documents that are secondary sources in nature take paragraph pinpoints in square brackets under rules 1.1.6 to 1.1.7.
  • An annex or schedule may be cited under rule 9.2.12; an annex with its own title takes that title in italics inside curly single quotation marks and round brackets.

Examples

Quoted from the Guide, page 185
  1. 4
    China — Tariff Rate Quotas for Certain Agricultural Products, WTO Docs WT/DS517/1 and G/L/1171 (21 December 2016) (Request for Consultations by the United States).
  2. 5
    Doha Work Programme, WTO Doc WT/MIN(05)/DEC (22 December 2005, adopted 18 December 2005) (Ministerial Declaration) para 50(1).
  3. 6
    Notification, WTO Doc G/TBT/N/BHR/188 (24 February 2010) [7].
  4. 7
    Cuba — Article XV:6, WTO Doc WT/L/1003 (12 December 2016) (Decision on Extension of Waiver) paras 1–2, 4.
  5. 8
    Accession of the People’s Republic of China, WTO Doc WT/L/432 (23 November 2001) (Decision of 10 November 2001) annex 7 (‘Reservations by WTO Members’).

Elements of an official WTO document

Quoted from the Guide, page 185
ElementExample
Document TitleImplementation of Paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health,
Document NumberWTO Doc WT/L/540
Full Date(2 September 2003)
Document Description(Decision of 30 August 2003)
Pinpointpara 2(a)

See also

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Formats, examples, passages, tables and the forms marked Not are quoted from the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (4th ed, Melbourne University Law Review Association, 2018), with the page of the Guide they appear on. Titles, summaries and explanations are our own.