The WTO General Council adopted a Decision on July 18, 1996 establishing procedures for the dissemination of WTO documents to the public. This discussion will first explain how documents can become available under the new decision and then evaluate these procedures and the access to documents that now exists under them. ·
Following an overview in Part A, the three methods by which de-restriction can occur– automatically, through scheduled consideration, or through unscheduled consideration — are discussed in more detail, in Parts B, C, and D. In Part E, the reconsideration of documents for de-restriction is explained and the lack of stipulated valuative criteria for de-restriction determination is discussed. Part F explains how to obtain unrestricted and de-restricted documents. Finally, Part G critiques the current processes for releasing documents to the public pursuant to the July decision.