Relief from obligations in exceptional circumstances
Article 47
1. The Council may relieve a Member of an obligation on account of exceptional or emergency circumstances, force majeure or international obligations under the Charter of the United Nations for territories administered under the trusteeship system. 2. The Council, in granting relief to a Member under paragraph 1 of this Article, shall state explicitly the terms and conditions on which, and the period for which, the Member is relieved of the obligation and the reasons for which the relief is granted. 3. Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this Article, the Council shall not grant relief to a Member in respect of the obligation under Article 25 to pay contributions, or the consequences of a failure to pay them. 4. The basis for the calculation of the distribution of votes of an exporting Member for which the Council has recognised a case of force majeure , shall be the effective volume of its exports for the year in which the force majeure occurred and subsequently for the ensuing 3 years following the force majeure .