Title
Agreement between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Sultanate of Oman on the Establishment of a Free Trade Area
Preamble
The Government of the United States of America (hereinafter "the United States") and the Government of the Sultanate of Oman (hereinafter "Oman") (together referred to as "Parties", and individually as "Party"),
Recognizing the strong bonds of friendship between them and wishing to strengthen their economic relations;
Recognizing that open and competitive markets are key drivers of economic efficiency, innovation, and growth;
Desiring to create new employment opportunities and raise the standard of living for their citizens by liberalizing and expanding trade between them;
Desiring to enhance the competitiveness of their enterprises in global markets; Desiring to establish clear and mutually advantageous rules governing their trade;
Building on their rights and obligations under the WTO Agreement and other agreements to which both Parties are party;
Affirming their commitment to transparency and their desire to eliminate bribery and corruption in international trade and investment;
Desiring to foster creativity and innovation, improve technology, and enhance the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights;
Desiring to protect, enhance, and enforce basic workers' rights and to strengthen the development and enforcement of labor laws and policies;
Desiring to strengthen the development and enforcement of environmental laws and policies, promote sustainable development, and implement this Agreement in a manner consistent with the objectives of environmental protection and conservation;
Affirming their support for the participation of the Parties in the establishment of an expanded free trade area in the Middle East that would contribute to economic liberalization and development in the region;
Have agreed as follows:
Body
Chapter ONE. INITIAL PROVISIONS AND DEFINITIONS
Section A. Initial Provisions
Article 1.1. ESTABLISHMENT OF A FREE TRADE AREA
Consistent with Article XXIV of GATT 1994 and Article V of GATS, the Parties hereby establish a free trade area in accordance with the provisions of this Agreement.
Article 1.2. RELATION TO OTHER AGREEMENTS
1. Each Party affirms its existing rights and obligations with respect to each other under existing bilateral and multilateral agreements to which both Parties are party, including the WTO Agreement.
2. This Agreement shall not be construed to derogate from any legal obligation between the Parties that entitles goods or services, or suppliers of goods or services, to treatment more favorable than that accorded by this Agreement.
Section B. General Definitions
Article 1.3. DEFINITIONS
For purposes of this Agreement, unless otherwise specified:
Agreement on Textiles and Clothing means the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing, contained in Annex 1A to the WTO Agreement;
central level of government means:
(a) for Oman, the government of Oman; and
(b) for the United States, the federal level of government;
covered investment means, with respect to a Party, an investment, as defined in Article 10.27 (Definitions), in its territory of an investor of the other Party in existence as of the date of entry into force of this Agreement or established, acquired, or expanded thereafter;
customs duties includes any customs or import duty and a charge of any kind imposed in connection with the importation of a good, including any form of surtax or surcharge in connection with such importation, but does not include any:
(a) charge equivalent to an internal tax imposed consistently with Article III:2 of the GATT 1994, in respect of like, directly competitive, or substitutable goods of the Party, or in respect of goods from which the imported good has been manufactured or produced in whole or in part;
(b) antidumping or countervailing duty that is applied pursuant to a Party's domestic law; and
(c) fee or other charge in connection with importation commensurate with the cost of services rendered;
Customs Valuation Agreement means the Agreement on Implementation of Article VII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994, contained in Annex 1A to the WTO Agreement;
days means calendar days as reckoned according to the Gregorian calendar;
enterprise means any entity constituted or organized under applicable law, whether or not for profit, and whether privately or governmentally owned or controlled, including any corporation, trust, partnership, sole proprietorship, joint venture, association, or similar organization;
enterprise of a Party means an enterprise constituted or organized under a Partyâs law; existing means in effect on the date of entry into force of this Agreement; GATS means the General Agreement on Trade in Services, contained in Annex 1B to the WTO Agreement;
GATT 1994 means the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994, contained in Annex 1A to the WTO Agreement;
goods of a Party means domestic products as these are understood in GATT 1994 or such goods as the Parties may agree, and includes originating goods of that Party;
government procurement means the process by which a government obtains the use of or acquires goods or services, or any combination thereof, for governmental purposes and not with a view to commercial sale or resale, or use in the production or supply of goods or services for commercial sale or resale;
Harmonized System (HS) means the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, including its General Rules of Interpretation, Section Notes, and Chapter Notes, as adopted and implemented by the Parties in their respective tariff laws;
measure includes any law, regulation, procedure, order, requirement, or practice;
national means:
(a) with respect to Oman, any person who is a citizen within the meaning of its domestic laws governing nationality; and
(b) with respect to the United States, "national of the United States" as defined in Title III of the Immigration and Nationality Act;
originating good means a good qualifying under the rules of origin set out in Chapter Four (Rules of Origin) or Chapter Three (Textiles and Apparel);
person means a natural person or an enterprise;
person of a Party means a national or an enterprise of a Party;
preferential tariff treatment means the duty rate applicable under this Agreement to an originating good;
regional level of government means:
(a) for Oman, "regional level of government" is not applicable; and
(b) for the United States, a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, or Puerto Rico;
Safeguards Agreement means the Agreement on Safeguards, contained in Annex 1A to the WTO Agreement;
SPS Agreement means the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, contained in Annex 1A to the WTO Agreement;
state enterprise means an enterprise owned, or controlled through ownership interests, by a Party;
TBT Agreement means the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade, contained in Annex 1A to the WTO Agreement;
territory means:
(a) with respect to Oman, all the lands of Oman within its geographical boundaries, the internal waters, maritime areas including the territorial sea, and airspace under its sovereignty, and the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf where Oman exercises sovereign rights and jurisdiction in accordance with its domestic law and international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea;
(b) with respect to the United States,
(i) the customs territory of the United States, which includes the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico;
(ii) the foreign trade zones located in the United States and Puerto Rico; and
(iii) any areas beyond the territorial seas of the United States within which, in accordance with international law and its domestic law, the United States may exercise rights with respect to the seabed and subsoil and their natural resources;
TRIPS Agreement means the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, contained in Annex 1C to the WTO Agreement; (1)
WTO means the World Trade Organization; and
WTO Agreement means the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, done on April 15, 1994.
Chapter TWO. NATIONAL TREATMENT AND MARKET ACCESS FOR GOODS
Article 2.1. SCOPE AND COVERAGE
Except as otherwise provided, this Chapter applies to trade in goods of a Party.
Section A. National Treatment
Article 2.2. NATIONAL TREATMENT
1. Each Party shall accord national treatment to the goods of the other Party in accordance with Article III of GATT 1994, including its interpretive notes, and to this end Article Ill of GATT 1994 and its interpretative notes are incorporated into and made a part of this Agreement, mutatis mutandis.
2. The treatment to be accorded by a Party under paragraph 1 means, with respect to a regional level of government, treatment no less favorable than the most favorable treatment that regional level government accords to any like, directly competitive, or substitutable goods, as the case may be, of the Party of which it forms a part.
3. Paragraphs 1 and 2 shall not apply to the measures set out in Annex 2-A.
Section B. Tariff Elimination
Article 2.3. TARIFF ELIMINATION
1. Except as otherwise provided in this Agreement, neither Party may increase any existing customs duty, or adopt any new customs duty, on an originating good.
2. Except as otherwise provided in this Agreement, each Party shall progressively eliminate its customs duties on originating goods, in accordance with its Schedule to Annex 2-B.
3. On the request of either Party, the Parties shall consult to consider accelerating the elimination of customs duties set out in their Schedules to Annex 2-B. An agreement by the Parties to accelerate the elimination of a customs duty on a good shall supercede any duty rate or staging category determined pursuant to their Schedules to Annex 2-B for that good when approved by each Party in accordance with its applicable legal procedures.
4. For greater certainty, a Party may:
(a) raise a customs duty back to the level established in its Schedule to Annex 2-B following a unilateral reduction; or
(b) maintain or increase a customs duty as authorized by the Dispute Settlement Body of the WTO.
Section C. Special Regimes
Article 2.4. WAIVER OF CUSTOMS DUTIES
1. Neither Party may adopt any new waiver of customs duties, or expand with respect to existing recipients or extend to any new recipient the application of an existing waiver of customs duties, where the waiver is conditioned, explicitly or implicitly, on the fulfillment of a performance requirement.
2. Neither Party may, explicitly or implicitly, condition on the fulfillment of a performance requirement the continuation of any existing waiver of customs duties.
Article 2.5. TEMPORARY ADMISSION OF GOODS (1)
1. Each Party shall grant duty-free temporary admission for:
(a) professional equipment, including equipment for the press or television, software, and broadcasting and cinematographic equipment, necessary for carrying out the business activity, trade, or profession of a person who qualifies for temporary entry pursuant to the laws of the importing Party;
(b) goods intended for display or demonstration;
(c) commercial samples and advertising films and recordings; and
(d) goods imported for sports purposes, regardless of their origin.
2. Each Party shall, at the request of the person concerned and for reasons its customs authority considers valid, extend the time limit for temporary admission beyond the period initially fixed.
3. Neither Party may condition the duty-free temporary admission of a good referred to in paragraph 1, other than to require that the good:
(a) be used solely by or under the personal supervision of a national or resident of the other Party in the exercise of the business activity, trade, profession, or sport of that person;
(b) not be sold or leased while in its territory;
(c) be accompanied by a security in an amount no greater than the charges that would otherwise be owed on entry or final importation, releasable on exportation of the good;
(d) be capable of identification when exported;
(e) be exported on the departure of the person referenced in subparagraph (a), or within such other period related to the purpose of the temporary admission as the Party may establish;
(f) be imported in no greater quantity than is reasonable for its intended use; and
(g) be otherwise admissible into the Party's territory under its laws.
4. If any condition that a Party imposes under paragraph 3 has not been fulfilled, the Party may apply the customs duty and any other charge that would normally be owed on the good.
5. Each Party, through its customs authority, shall adopt and maintain procedures providing for the expeditious release of goods admitted under this Article. To the extent possible, these procedures shall provide that when such goods accompany a national or resident of the other Party who is seeking temporary entry, the good shall be released simultaneously with the entry of that national or resident.
6. Each Party shall permit a good temporarily admitted under this Article to be exported through a customs port other than that through which it was admitted.
7. Each Party, through its customs authority, shall relieve the importer or other person responsible for a good admitted under this Article from any liability for failure to export the good on destruction of the good in the presence of the Party's customs authority or presentation of satisfactory proof to its customs authority, in accordance with its law, that the good has been destroyed within the original period fixed for temporary admission or any lawful extension.
8. Subject to Chapters Ten (Investment) and Eleven (Cross-Border Trade in Services):
(a) each Party shall allow a container used in international traffic that enters its territory from the territory of the other Party to exit its territory on any route that is reasonably related to the economic and prompt departure of such container;
(b) neither Party may require any security or impose any penalty or charge solely because of any difference between the port of entry and the port of departure of a container;
(c) neither Party may condition the release of any obligation, including any security, that it imposes in respect of the entry of a container into its territory on its exit through any particular port of departure; and
(d) neither Party may require that the carrier bringing a container from the territory of the other Party into its territory be the same carrier that takes such container to the territory of the other Party.
Article 2.6. GOODS RE-ENTERED AFTER REPAIR OR ALTERATION
1. Neither Party may apply a customs duty to a good, regardless of its origin, that re-enters its territory after that good has been exported from its territory to the territory of the other Party for repair or alteration, regardless of whether such repair or alteration could be performed in its territory.
2. Neither Party may apply a customs duty to a good, regardless of its origin, imported temporarily from the territory of the other Party for repair or alteration.
3. For purposes of this Article, repair or alteration means restoration, renovation, cleaning, resterilizing, or other operation or process that does not:
(a) destroy a good's essential characteristics or create a new or commercially different good; or
(b) transform an unfinished good into a finished good.
Article 2.7. DUTY-FREE ENTRY OF COMMERCIAL SAMPLES OF NEGLIGIBLE VALUE AND PRINTED ADVERTISING MATERIALS
Each Party shall grant duty-free entry to commercial samples of negligible value, and to printed advertising materials, imported from the territory of the other Party, regardless of their origin, but may require that:
(a) such samples be imported solely for the solicitation of orders for goods, or the solicitation of orders for services provided from the territory, of the other Party or a non-Party; or
(b) such advertising materials be imported in packets that each contain no more than one copy of each such material and that neither such materials nor packets form part of a larger consignment.
Section D. Non-Tariff Measures
Article 2.8. IMPORT AND EXPORT RESTRICTIONS
1. Except as otherwise provided in this Agreement, neither Party may adopt or maintain any prohibition or restriction on the importation of any good of the other Party or on the exportation or sale for export of any good destined for the territory of the other Party, except in accordance with Article Xl of GATT 1994 and its interpretive notes, and to this end Article XI of GATT 1994 and its interpretive notes are incorporated into and made a part of this Agreement, mutatis mutandis. (2)
2. The Parties understand that GATT 1994 rights and obligations incorporated by paragraph 1 prohibit, in any circumstances in which any other form of restriction is prohibited, a Party from adopting or maintaining:
(a) export and import price requirements, except as permitted in enforcement of countervailing and antidumping duty orders and undertakings;
(b) measures conditioning the grant of an import license on the fulfillment of a performance requirement; or
(c) voluntary export restraints inconsistent with Article VI of GATT 1994, as implemented under Article 18 of the WTO Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures and Article 8.1 of the WTO Agreement on Implementation of Article VI of GATT 1994.
3. In the event that a Party adopts or maintains a prohibition or restriction on the importation from or exportation to a non-Party of a good, no provision of this Agreement shall be construed to prevent the Party from:
(a) limiting or prohibiting the importation of the good of the non-Party from the territory of the other Party; or
(b) requiring as a condition for exporting the good of the Party to the territory of the other Party, that the good not be re-exported to the non-Party, directly or indirectly, without being consumed in the territory of the other Party.
4. In the event that a Party adopts or maintains a prohibition or restriction on the importation of a good from a non-Party, the Parties, on the request of either Party, shall consult with a view to avoiding undue interference with or distortion of pricing, marketing, and distribution arrangements in the other Party.
5. Paragraphs 1 through 4 shall not apply to the measures set out in Annex 2-A.
Article 2.9. ADMINISTRATIVE FEES AND FORMALITIES
1. Each Party shall ensure, in accordance with Article VIll:1 of GATT 1994 and its interpretive notes, that all fees and charges of whatever character (other than import and export duties, charges equivalent to an internal tax or other internal charges applied consistently with Article III:2 of GATT 1994, and antidumping and countervailing duties applied pursuant to a Party's law) imposed on, or in connection with, importation or exportation are limited in amount to the approximate cost of services rendered and do not represent an indirect protection to domestic goods or a taxation of imports or exports for fiscal purposes.
2. Neither Party may require consular transactions, including related fees and charges, in connection with the importation of any good of the other Party.
3. Each Party shall make available on the Internet a current list of the fees and charges it imposes in connection with importation or exportation.
4. The United States shall eliminate its merchandise processing fee on originating goods.
Article 2.10. EXPORT TAXES
Neither Party may adopt or maintain any tax, duty, or other charge on the export of any good to the territory of the other Party, unless the tax, duty, or charge is also adopted or maintained on the good when destined for domestic consumption.
Section E. Section : Agriculture
Article 2.11. AGRICULTURAL EXPORT SUBSIDIES
1. The Parties share the objective of the multilateral elimination of export subsidies for agricultural goods and shall work together toward an agreement in the WTO to eliminate those subsidies and prevent their reintroduction in any form.
2. Except as provided in paragraph 3, neither Party may introduce or maintain any export subsidy on any agricultural good destined for the territory of the other Party.
3. Where an exporting Party considers that a non-Party is exporting an agricultural good to the territory of the other Party with the benefit of export subsidies, the importing Party shall, on written request of the exporting Party, consult with the exporting Party with a view to agreeing on specific measures that the importing Party may adopt to counter the effect of such subsidized imports. If the importing Party adopts the agreed-on measures, the exporting Party shall refrain from applying any export subsidy to exports of such good to the territory of the importing Party.(3)