The Parties place importance on the integrity and impartiality of Proceedings conducted pursuant to the provisions of Chapter Seventeen of the Agreement on Internal Trade, this Code of Conduct is hereby established to ensure that these principles are respected.
This Code of Conduct is intended to assist the Committee, the Secretariat and Presiding Body members in the operation of dispute resolution procedures involving presiding bodies under Chapter Seventeen.
The governing principle of this Code of Conduct is that a candidate or member must disclose the existence of any interest relationship or matter that is likely to affect the candidate’s or member’s independence or impartiality, that is, which creates a reasonable apprehension of bias or an appearance of impropriety.
A reasonable apprehension of bias is created where a reasonable person, with knowledge of all the relevant circumstances that a reasonable inquiry would disclose, would reasonably conclude that a candidate or member has an interest, relationship or matter that might have an influence on the exercise of the candidate’s or member’s public duties.
The disclosure obligation, however, should not be interpreted so that the burden of detailed disclosure makes it impractical for persons to serve as members, thereby depriving the Parties and Participants of the services of those who might be best qualified to serve as members. Thus, candidates and members should not be called upon to disclose interests, relationships or matters whose bearing on their role in the Proceeding would be trivial.
Throughout the Proceeding, candidates and members have a continuing obligation to disclose, in writing, interests, relationships or matter that may bear on the integrity or impartiality of the dispute settlement process.
This Code of Conduct does not determine whether or under what circumstances the Parties will disqualify a candidate or member from being appointed to, or serving as a member of, a panel or committee on the basis of disclosures made.