Türkiye - United Arab Emirates CEPA (2023) - Electronic Database of Investment Treaties (EDIT)

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Türkiye - United Arab Emirates CEPA (2023)

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(a) fostering the adoption and use of internationally accepted standards for electronic payments;

(b) promoting interoperability and the interlinking of electronic payment infrastructures; and

2. To this end, each Party shall endeavour to:

(a) make publicly available its laws and regulations of general applicability relating to electronic payments, including in relation to licensing requirements, procedures, and technical standards;

(b) process licensing applications relating to electronic payments in a timely manner;

(c) adopt or utilize international standards for electronic data exchange between financial institutions and services suppliers to enable greater interoperability between electronic payment systems; and

(d) facilitate the use of open platforms and architectures such as tools and protocols provided for through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and encourage payment service providers to safely and securely make APIs for their products and services available to third parties, where possible, to facilitate greater interoperability, innovation, and competition in electronic payments.

(17) Electronic payments may also be defined as digital payments.

Article 9.17. Digital Identities

Recognising that cooperation between the Parties on digital identities for natural persons and enterprises will promote connectivity and further growth of digital trade, and recognising that each party may take different legal and technical approaches to digital identities, the Parties shall endeavour to pursue mechanisms to promote compatibility between their Respective digital identity regimes. This may include:

(a) developing appropriate frameworks and common standards to foster technical interoperability between each Party's implementation of digital identities;

(b) developing comparable protection of digital identities under each Party's respective legal frameworks, or the recognition of their legal effects, whether accorded autonomously or by agreement;

(d) exchanging knowledge and expertise on best practices relating to digital identity policies and regulations, technical implementation and security standards, and the promotion of the use of digital identities.

Article 9.18. Artificial Intelligence

1. The Parties recognise that the use and adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies are becoming increasingly important to digital trade, offering significant social and economic benefits to natural persons and enterprises. In view of this, the Parties shall endeavour to cooperate, in accordance with their respective laws and policies, through:

(a) sharing research and industry practices related to AI technologies and their governance;

(b) promoting and sustaining the responsible use and adoption of AI technologies by businesses and across the community; and

2. The Parties also recognise the importance of developing ethical governance frameworks for the trusted, safe, and responsible use of AI technologies that will help realise the benefits of AI. In view of the cross-border nature of digital trade, the Parties further acknowledge the benefits of ensuring that such frameworks are internationally aligned as far as possible. To this end, the Parties shall endeavour to:

(a) collaborate on and promote the development and adoption of ethical governance frameworks that support the trusted, safe, and responsible use of AI technologies, including through relevant international fora; and

(b) take into consideration internationally-recognised principles or guidelines when developing such frameworks.

Article 9.19. Cooperation

1. Recognising the importance of digital trade to their collective economies, the Parties shall endeavour to maintain a dialogue on regulatory matters relating to digital trade with a view to sharing information and experiences, as appropriate, including on related laws, regulations, and their implementation, and best practices with respect to digital trade, including in relation to:

(a) online consumer protection;

(b) personal data protection;

(d) unsolicited commercial electronic messages;

(e) authentication and e-signatures;

(f) intellectual property concerns with respect to digital trade;

(g) challenges for small and medium-sized enterprises in digital trade;

(h) digital government; and

(i) financial technology (FinTech).

2. The Parties have a shared vision to promote secure digital trade and recognise that threats to cybersecurity undermine confidence in digital trade. Accordingly, the Parties recognise the importance of:

(a) building the capabilities of their government agencies responsible for computer security incident response;

(b) using existing collaboration mechanisms to cooperate to identify and mitigate malicious intrusions or dissemination of malicious code that affect the electronic networks of the Parties;

(c) promoting the development of a strong public and private workforce in the area of cybersecurity, including possible initiatives relating to mutual recognition of qualifications;

(d) meeting all relevant national and international legislative statutory, regulatory, and contractual requirements related to cybersecurity;

(e) security mechanisms and procedures that, taken together, in order to constitute a security architecture for digital trade;

(f) protections in place to ensure that data collected about individuals are not disclosed without the individuals' explicit consent nor used for purposes other than that for which they are collected; and

(g) regular programs of audit and assessment of the security of digital trade environments and applications to provide assurance that cybersecurity controls are effective.

Chapter 10. INVESTMENT FACILITATION

Article 10.1. Definitions

For the purposes of this Chapter:

Applicant means an investor of a Party who applied for an authorisation in the territory of the other Party;

Authorisation means the permission to pursue investment activities under the applicable law of a Party, such as permits, licences, and other similar authorisation, resulting from a procedure an investor must adhere to in order to demonstrate compliance with the necessary requirements;

Enterprise means any juridical person or any other entity duly constituted or organised under the applicable laws and regulations, whether or not for profit, and whether private or government-owned or controlled, including any corporation, trust, partnership, sole proprietorship, joint venture, business association, organisation, or company;

Enterprise of a Party means a juridical person, including sovereign wealth funds, constituted or otherwise organised under the law of that Party, that is engaged in substantive business operations in the territory of that Party;

Investment means an enterprise or a branch of an enterprise;

Investment activities means the establishment, acquisition, expansion, operation, management, maintenance, use, enjoyment, sale, or other form of disposal of investments in services and non-services sectors;

Investor of a Party means a natural person of a Party or an enterprise of a Party that seeks to make, is making, or has made investments in the territory of the other Party;

Natural person of a Party means a natural person who, under the law of that Party, is a national of that Party; and

Measure means any measure by a Party, whether in the form of a law, regulation, rule, procedure, decision, administrative action, or any other form.

Article 10.2. Objectives and Scope

1. The purpose of this Chapter is to ensure the facilitation of procedures as much as possible to increase direct investment flows between the Parties and create a better and safer environment for doing business in the territory of each Party.

2. This Chapter applies to the administration of measures by a Party affecting investment activities in its territory of an investor of the other Party.

3. This Chapter shall apply to measures adopted or maintained by:

(a) central, regional, or local governments and authorities; and

(b) non-governmental bodies in the exercise of powers delegated by central, regional, or local governments or authorities.

4. The Parties recognise the right to regulate and introduce new regulations in order to meet national policy objectives in a manner consistent with their obligations and commitments under this Agreement.

5. Without prejudice to the rights and obligations arising from Chapter 8 (Trade in Services), nothing in this Chapter shall be construed to confer any rights for market access.

6. This Chapter shall not apply to government procurement and public concessions, including public-private partnership projects.

7. The Parties affirm their rights and obligations stemming from the Agreement Between the Republic of Turkey and the United Arab Emirates Concerning the Reciprocal Promotion and Protection of Investments, signed at Abu Dhabi, UAE on 28 September 2005 or any future Bilateral Investment Treaty signed between two Parties, and acknowledge that the provisions of this Chapter and that Agreement are complementary to each other.

8. For greater certainty, this Chapter does not cover any provisions related to investment protection or investor-state dispute settlement.

9. In case of any inconsistency between the provisions of this Chapter and the provisions of the Agreement Between the Republic of Turkey and the United Arab Emirates Concerning the Reciprocal Promotion and Protection of Investments, signed at Abu Dhabi, UAE on 28 September 2005 or any future Bilateral Investment Treaty signed between two Parties, the provisions of the latter shall prevail.

Article 10.3. Transparency and Predictability

1. Each Party shall ensure that its laws, regulations, procedures, and other measures of general application, as well as international agreements, affecting investment activities are published or otherwise made available in a manner that enables interested persons and the other Party to become acquainted with them.

2. If a Party requires authorisation for investment activities, the Party shall publish or otherwise make publicly available in writing (18) the information necessary to comply with the requirements and the procedures for obtaining, maintaining, amending, or renewing such authorisation. Such information shall include, inter alia, where it exists:

(a) the requirements applicable to investment activities and the procedures needed to comply with those requirements;

(b) the contact information of relevant competent authorities;

(d) technical standards;

(e) the procedures for appeal or review of decisions concerning applications;

(f) the procedures for monitoring or enforcing compliance with the terms and conditions of licences or qualifications; and

(g) the indicative timeframes for the processing of an application.

3. Each Party shall endeavour to ensure that laws and regulations it proposes to adopt in relation to matters falling within the scope of this Chapter are published in advance in electronic form.

(18) "In writing" may include electronic form.

Article 10.4. Procedures

Submission of Applications

1. Each Party shall, to the extent practicable, endeavour to avoid requiring an applicant to approach more than one competent authority for each application to comply with licencing and qualification requirements. (19)

2. To the extent practicable, the competent authorities shall accept applications in electronic format under the same conditions of authenticity as paper submissions.

Application Timeframes

3. The competent authorities shall, to the extent practicable, permit an applicant to submit an application at any time. Where specific time periods for applications exist, they shall be of reasonable length.

Processing of Applications

4. If a Party requires authorisation, it shall ensure that its competent authorities:

(a) to the extent practicable, provide an indicative timeframe for the processing of an application;

(b) to the extent practicable, ascertain without undue delay the completeness of an application for processing under the Party's domestic laws and regulations;

(c) at the request of the applicant, provide without undue delay information concerning the status of the application, if possible in electronic form;

(d) process an application which they consider complete under the Party's domestic laws and regulations, as expeditiously as possible; and

(e) inform the applicant of the final decision (20) in writing (21) without undue delay.

5. Each Party shall ensure that an authorisation is granted when all the applicable requirements have been fulfilled and, once granted, enters into effect without undue delay in accordance with the terms and conditions specified therein.

6. The competent authorities shall, within a reasonable period of time after the receipt of an application which they consider incomplete:

(a) inform the applicant that the application is considered incomplete;

(b) identify the additional information required to complete the application or otherwise provide guidance on why the application is considered incomplete; and

(c) provide the applicant the opportunity to complete its application within a reasonable period of time or, if appropriate, to submit a new application.

7. If the competent authorities reject an application, they shall inform the applicant in writing (22) of:

(a) the reasons for rejection of the application and, if applicable, the procedures for resubmission of an application; and

(b) the timeframe and procedures for any available review or appeal against the decision.

8. An applicant should not be prevented from submitting another application solely on the basis of a previously rejected application.

(19) For both Parties, there may be more than one competent authority that the investors apply to.

(20) Competent authorities may meet this requirement by informing an applicant in advance in writing, including through a published measure, that lack of response after a specified period of time from the date of submission of the application indicates either acceptance or rejection of the application.

(21) "In writing" may include electronic form.

(22) "In writing" may include electronic form.

Article 10.5. Appeal and Review

1. Each Party shall provide that an investor to whom a competent authority issues a decision has the right, within its territory, to:

(a) an administrative appeal to the competent authority that issued the decision or review by an administrative authority higher than or independent of the competent authority that issued the decision; and/or

(b) a judicial appeal or review of the decision.

2. Each Party shall ensure that its procedures for appeal or review are carried out in a non- discriminatory manner.

Article 10.6. Independence and Impartiality

1. Each Party shall ensure that the procedures and decisions of its competent authorities are impartial with respect to all applicants.

2. The competent authorities should be operationally independent of, and not accountable to, any investor for which the authorisation is required.

Article 10.7. Digitalisation and Electronic Governance

1. The Parties shall endeavour to reach the highest possible level of digitalisation of procedures related to investments.

2. For the purposes of this Chapter, electronic documents and electronic signatures shall produce the same legal effect as those of paper documents and handwritten signatures, subject to the Party's domestic laws and regulations on electronic documents and electronic signatures.

Article 10.8. Movement of Business Persons

Article 2 through 4 of Annex 8-3 (Movement of Natural Persons) Shall Apply to the Measures Affecting Business Persons of a Party.

Article 10.9. Subcommittee for Trade- Investment Facilitation Matters

1. For the purposes of the effective implementation and operation of this Chapter, subcommittee for trade established by Chapter 17 of this Agreement will handle, among others, Investment Facilitation matters.

2. These matters include the objectives below:

(a) promote and enhance investment cooperation and facilitation between the Parties;

(b) monitor investment relations, identify opportunities for expanding investment, and identify issues relevant to investment that may be appropriate for further discussion in the Committee;

(d) identify and work toward the removal of impediments and facilitate investment flows, including proposing an agenda for cooperation and facilitation, which may include issues such as transfer of funds, personnel mobility and logistical matters, among others;

(e) hold consultations on specific investment matters of interest to the Parties;

(f) seek the views of the private sector, where appropriate, on matters related to the work of the Committee; and

(g) work toward the promotion of investment flows.

Chapter 11. GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT

Article 11.1. Government Procurement

1. The Parties recognise the importance of cooperation in the area of Government Procurement in accordance with their respective laws and regulations.

2. After two years from the entry into force of this Agreement, the either Party may, upon request from the other Party, enter into discussions to negotiate a new chapter on Government Procurement, which shall form an integral part of this Agreement. In the course of such negotiations, the Parties shall give due consideration to their respective laws, regulations and best practices.

Chapter 12. COMPETITION AND RELATED MATTERS

Article 12.1. Principles

The Parties recognise the importance of free and undistorted competition in their trade relations. They acknowledge that anti-competitive business conduct or anti-competitive transactions have the potential to distort the proper functioning of their markets and undermine the benefits of trade liberalization.

Article 12.2. Implementation

Each Party shall maintain its autonomy in developing and enforcing its competition law. Each Party shall proscribe anti-competitive business conduct as prescribed in its competition law.

Article 12.3. Cooperation and Coordination

The respective authorities of the Parties, where appropriate and mutually agreed, may coordinate, cooperate, and consult on competition matters with a view to fulfilling the objective of this Agreement regarding free and undistorted competition in their trade relations.

Article 12.4. Confidentiality

1. Nothing in this Chapter shall be construed as requiring either Party to provide or disclose confidential information.

2. When a Party communicates information in confidence to the other Party under this Chapter, the receiving Party shall maintain the confidentiality of the communicated information.

Article 12.5. General Provisions

Three years after the entry into force of this Agreement, the Parties as mutually agreed shall endeavour to commence a review of this Chapter with a view, to the extent possible, to modernizing or expanding it.