Mr. Chairman, by letter dated November 27, the United States informed you that, pursuant to Article 4.11 of the SCM Agreement and Article 22.6 of the DSU, it objects to the appropriateness of the countermeasures and the level of suspension of concessions proposed by the EC in document WT/DS108/13.

Under the terms of the DSU (and, consequently, Article 4.11 of the SCM Agreement), the filing of such an objection automatically results in the matter being referred to arbitration, and no further action is required of the DSB. Indeed, Article 22.6 does not refer to any decision by the DSB.

Consequently, the matter is already being referred to arbitration. Nevertheless, we have no objection if the DSB wishes to take note of that fact and confirm that it may not consider the EC's request for authorization, which is the agenda item today, since the matter is being referred to arbitration.

The United States would add that in accordance with agreement reached with the EC, and notified to the DSB in WT/DS108/12, the United States and the EC will be requesting the arbitrator, at the earliest possible moment, to suspend its work pending the outcome of the EC's DSU Article 21.5 challenge to the FSC replacement legislation.

The United States is confident that should the arbitrators ever have to consider the matter, they will find that the U.S. objections to the EC's proposed actions are well