2. Where one Party considers that a sanitary or phytosanitary measure of the other Party is interpreted or applied in a manner that is inconsistent with the provisions of this Chapter, it shall be required to demonstrate that inconsistency.
3. Where one Party requests consultations and notifies the Committee of its request, the Committee shall facilitate the consultations and may remit them to an ad hoc working group or some other forum for advice or non-binding technical recommendations.
4. Where the Parties have held consultations under this Article without achieving satisfactory results, those consultations, if agreed by the Parties, shall constitute the consultations envisaged in Article 18-04 (Consultations).
Article 7-13. Relation to other Chapters
The provision of Article XX(b) of the GATT 1994, included in Article 19- 02(1) (General Exceptions), does not apply to any sanitary or phytosanitary measure.
Chapter 8. STANDARDS-RELATED MEASURES
Article 8-01. Definitions
For the purposes of this Chapter:
approval procedure means any registration, notification or other mandatory administrative procedure for granting permission for a good or service to be produced, marketed or used for a stated purpose or under stated conditions;
assessment of risk means evaluation of the potential for adverse effects;
conformity assessment procedure means any procedure used, directly or indirectly, to determine that atechnical regulation or standard is fulfilled, including sampling, testing, inspection, evaluation, verification, assurance of conformity, registration, accreditation and approval, separately or in different combinations;
international standard means a standards-related measure, or other guide or recommendation, adopted by an international standardizing body and made available to the public;
international standardizing body means a standardizing body whose membership is open to the relevant bodies of at least all the parties to the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade, including the International Organization for Standardization, the International Electrotechnical Commission, Codex Alimentarius Commission, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Telecommunication Union, or any other body that the Parties designate;
legitimate objective includes the guarantee for safety or protection of human, animal or plant life or health, the environment, or the prevention of practices which may mislead or deceive consumers, including issues related to identifying goods or services, considering, among other things, where appropriate, fundamental climatic or other geographical factors, technological or infrastructural factors, or scientific justification;
make compatible means bring different standards-related measures of the same scope approved by different standardizing bodies to a level such that they are either identical, equivalent or have the effect of permitting goods or services to be used in place of one another or fulfil the same purpose;
services means any of the cross-border services sectors or subsectors set out in Annex 8-01;
standard means a document, approved by a recognized body, that provides, for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for goods or related processes and production methods, or for services or related operating methods, with which compliance is not mandatory. It may also include or deal exclusively with terminology, symbols, packaging, marking or labelling requirements as they apply to a good, process, or production or operating method;
standardizing body means a body having recognized activities in standardization;
standards-related measure means a standard, technical regulation or conformity assessment procedure;
TBT Agreement means the Agreement on Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade, which forms part of the WTO Agreement; and
technical regulation means a document which lays down goodsâ characteristics or their related processes and production methods, or servicesâ characteristics or their related operating methods, including the applicable administrative provisions, with which compliance is mandatory. It may also include or deal exclusively with terminology, symbols, packaging, marking or labelling requirements as they apply to a good, process, or production or operating method.
Article 8-02. General Provision
Apart from the provisions of the TBT Agreement, the Parties shall apply the provisions of this Chapter.
Article 8-03. Scope and Coverage
1. This Chapter applies to the standards-related measures of the Parties and measures that may, directly or indirectly, affect trade in goods or services between them.
2. This Chapter does not apply to sanitary and phytosanitary measures, which are covered by Chapter 7 (Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures).
Article 8-04. Basic Rights and Obligations
1. Each Party may, in pursuing its legitimate objectives, establish the levels of protection that it considers appropriate and may develop, adopt, apply or maintain any standards-related measure to ensure fulfilment of its legitimate objectives, and measures for the application of and compliance with standards-related measures, including approval procedures.
2. Each Party shall comply with this Chapter and adopt measures to ensure compliance and, within its ability, measures to that end with respect to non- governmental standardization organizations that are duly accredited in its territory.
3. With respect to standards and technical regulations, each Party shall accord the goods and service providers of the other Party national treatment and treatment no less favourable than that it accords to similar goods and service providers of a non-Party country.
4. No Party may prepare, adopt, maintain or apply any standards-related measure with a view to or with the effect of creating an unnecessary obstacle to trade between the Parties. To that end, standards-related measures shall not restrict trade more than is necessary to fulfil a legitimate objective, taking into account the risks that not fulfilling it would create. An unnecessary obstacle to trade shall not be deemed to be created where:
(a) the demonstrable purpose of the measure is to achieve a legitimate objective;
(b) it conforms to an international standard; and
(c) the measure does not operate to exclude goods of the other Party that meet that legitimate objective.
5. Each Party shall use existing international standards or standards whose adoption is imminent as the basis for its own standards-related measures, unless such standards are not an effective or appropriate means of fulfilling its legitimate objectives.
Article 8-05. Compatibility
1. Recognizing the central role of standards-related measures in achieving legitimate objectives, the Parties shall, in accordance with this Chapter and the TBT Agreement, work jointly to enhance the level of safety and of protection of human, animal and plant life and health, the environment and consumers.
2. Without reducing the level of safety or of protection of human, animal or plant life or health, the environment or consumers, without prejudice to the rights of either Party under this Chapter, and taking into account international standardization activities, the Parties shall, to the greatest extent practicable, make compatible their respective standards-related measures.
3. A Party shall, on request of the other Party, seek as far as practicable through appropriate measures, to promote the compatibility of a specific standard that is maintained in its territory with the standards maintained in the territory of the other Party.
4. On the express and written request of a Party, setting forth its reasons, the other Party shall give favourable consideration to the possibility of accepting technical regulations of that Party as equivalents, even if they differ from its own, provided that, in cooperation with that Party, it is convinced that the regulations comply with the legitimate objectives of its own regulations.
5. On the request of a Party, the other Party shall inform it in writing of its reasons for not accepting a technical regulation as equivalent.
Article 8-06. Assessment of Risk
1. A Party may, in pursuing its legitimate objectives, conduct an assessment of tisk. In conducting an assessment, a Party may take into account, among other factors relating to a good or service:
(a) assessments of risks performed by international standardization organizations;
(b) available scientific evidence or technical information;
(c) intended end use;
(d) processes or production methods provided they influence the nature of the end good or service;
(e) operating, inspection, sampling or testing processes or methods; or
(f) environmental conditions.
2. Where a Party establishes a level of protection that it considers appropriate to achieve its legitimate objectives and conducts an assessment of risk, it should avoid arbitrary or unjustifiable distinctions between similar goods or services in the level of protection it considers appropriate, where the distinctions:
(a) result in arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination against goods or service providers of the other Party;
(b) constitute a disguised restriction on trade between the Parties; or
(c) discriminate between similar goods or services for the same use under the same conditions that pose the same level of risk and provide similar benefits.
3. Where a Party conducting an assessment of risk determines that available scientific evidence or other information is insufficient to complete the assessment, it may adopt a provisional technical regulation on the basis of available relevant information and in accordance with the TBT Agreement. The Party shall, within a reasonable period after information sufficient to complete the assessment of risk is presented to it, complete its assessment, review and, where appropriate, revise the provisional technical regulation in the light of that assessment.
4. A Party shall provide the other Party upon request with documentation on its tisk-assessment processes and the factors it takes into account in conducting the assessment and in establishing the level of protection it considers appropriate in accordance with Article 8-04.
Article 8-07. Conformity Assessment Procedures
1. Conformity assessment procedures shall be prepared, adopted and applied so as to grant access for goods and services originating in the territory of the other Party under conditions no less favourable than those accorded to suppliers of like good or service of the Party or of a non-Party in a comparable situation.
2. With respect to its conformity assessment procedures, each Party shall ensure that:
(a) procedures are initiated and completed as expeditiously as possible, in non-discriminatory order;
(b) the normal processing period for each such procedure is published or the anticipated processing period is communicated to the applicant upon request;
(c) when receiving an application, the competent body or authority promptly examines the completeness of the documentation and informs the applicant in a precise and complete manner of all deficiencies; the competent body transmits as soon as possible the results of the assessment in a precise and complete manner to the applicant so that corrective action may be taken if necessary; even when the application has deficiencies, the competent body proceeds as far as practicable with the conformity assessment if the applicant so requests; and that, upon request, the applicant is informed of the stage of the procedure, with any delay being explained;
(d) information requirements are limited to what is necessary to assess conformity and determine fees;
(e) the confidentiality of information about a good or service originating in the territory of the other Party arising from or supplied in connection with such conformity assessment procedures is respected in the same way as for adomestic good or service and in such a manner that legitimate commercial interests are protected;
(f) any fees imposed for assessing the conformity of a good or service originating in the territory of the other Party are equitable in relation to any fees chargeable for assessing the conformity of like goods or services of national origin, taking into account communication, transportation and other costs arising from differences between the location of facilities of the applicant and the conformity assessment body;
(g) the siting of facilities used in conformity assessment procedures and the selection of samples are not such as to cause unnecessary inconvenience to applicants or their agents;
(h) whenever specifications of a good or service are changed subsequent to the determination of its conformity to the applicable technical regulations or standards, the conformity assessment procedure for the modified good or service is limited to what is necessary to determine whether adequate confidence exists that the good or service still meets the technical regulations or standards concerned; and
(i) a procedure exists to review complaints concerning the operation of a conformity assessment procedure and to take corrective action when a complaint is justified.
3. To facilitate trade, a Party shall give sympathetic consideration to a request by the other Party to negotiate agreements for the mutual recognition of the results of their respective conformity assessment procedures.
4. Each Party shall, as far as practicable, accept the results of conformity assessment procedures in the other Party, provided they offer satisfactory guarantees, equivalent to those provided by the procedures carried out by the accepting Party in its territory or which are carried out in its territory and whose results it accepts, that the pertinent good or service conforms to the applicable technical regulation or standard adopted or maintained in the territory of that Party.
5. Before accepting the results of a conformity assessment procedure, as provided in paragraph 4, and with the aim of enhancing the sustained reliability of the results of the conformity assessment of each Party, the Parties may consult on aspects such as the technical capacity of conformity assessment bodies, including verified conformity with relevant international standards through methods such as accreditation.
6. Recognizing that this should be to the mutual advantage of the Parties, each Party shall accredit, approve or otherwise recognize the conformity assessment bodies in the territory of the other Party under conditions no less favourable than it accords to such bodies in its territory.
Article 8-08. Approval Procedures
Each Party shall apply the pertinent provisions of Article 8-07(2) to its approval procedures, with the appropriate modifications.
Article 8-09. Notification, Publication and Transparency
1. A Party proposing to adopt or modify a technical regulation or a conformity assessment procedure applied to a technical regulation, except where the urgent circumstances established in Articles 2.10 and 5.7 of the TBT Agreement exist, shall publish a notice and notify the other Party in writing of the proposed measure at least 60 days prior to the adoption or modification of the measure, other than a law, as to enable interested persons to become acquainted with it.
2. Where a standardizing body of one Party proposes to adopt or modify a standard or conformity assessment procedure applied to a standard, that Party shall publish a notice and notify the other Party in writing of the proposed measure at an early appropriate stage, to enable interested persons to become acquainted with it.
3. The Parties shall make notifications under paragraphs 1 and 2 in accordance with the formats established in the TBT Agreement or such formats as are agreed to by the Parties.
4. Each Party shall notify the other annually of its standardization plans and programmes.
5. Each Party shall keep a list of its standardization measures which, upon request, shall be made available to the other Party, and shall ensure that where copies of documents are requested by the other Party or by interested persons of that Party, they are supplied at the same price, apart from the actual cost of delivery, as the price for domestic purchase.
6. Where a Party allows non-governmental persons in its territory to be present during the process of development of standards-related measures, it shall also allow non-governmental persons from the territory of the other Party to be present. The non-governmental persons of the territory of the other Party shall be permitted to express opinions and make comments on the standardization measure being developed.
7. For the purposes of this Article, the authorities named in Annex 8-09 shall be responsible for making the notifications.
Article 8-10. Limitations on the Provision of Information
Nothing in this Chapter shall be construed to require a Party to furnish any information the disclosure of which would impede law enforcement or otherwise be contrary to the public interest.
Article 8-11. Committee on Standards-Related Measures
1. The Parties hereby establish a Committee on Standards-Related Measures, comprising representatives of each Party, in accordance with Annex 8-11.
2. The Committee's functions shall include:
(a) monitoring the implementation, compliance and administration of this Chapter;
(b) considering particular matters on standardization-related measures and measurement systems of the other Party or measures related thereto, when a Party has questions regarding the interpretation or application of this Chapter, in order to provide technical advice or non- binding recommendations;
(c) facilitating the process by which the Parties make compatible their standards-related measures and measurement systems;
(d) providing a forum for the Parties to consult on issues relating to standards-related measures and measurement systems;
(e) promoting technical cooperation between the Parties;
(f) helping to develop and strengthen the standardization, technical regulation, conformity assessment and measurement systems of the Parties;
(g) reporting annually to the Commission on the application of this Chapter;
(h) facilitating the negotiation of agreements on mutual recognition;
(i) on the request of a Party, evaluating and recommending to the Commission for approval, the inclusion of specific services sectors or subsectors in Annex 8-01, such inclusion to be made through a decision of the Commission; and
(j) establishing relevant sub-committees and determining the scope of their activities and mandate.
3. The Committee shall meet at least once a year, unless the Parties otherwise agree.
4. The Parties establish a Telecommunications Standards Sub-Committee comprised of representatives of each Party. The Sub-Committee's functions shall be to:
(a) develop a work programme, within twelve months of the date of entry into force of this Agreement, including a timetable, for making compatible to the greatest extent possible, the standards-related measures of the Parties for authorized equipment as defined in Chapter 12 (Telecommunications);
(b) address other matters respecting the standardization of telecommunications equipment or services and such other matters as it considers appropriate; and
(c) take into account relevant work carried out by the Parties in other fora, and that of non-governmental standardizing bodies.
Article 8-12. Technical Cooperation
1. A Party shall, on the request of the other Party:
(a) provide to that Party information and technical assistance on mutually agreed terms and conditions to enhance that Party's standards-related measures, and related activities, processes and systems; and
(b) provide to that Party information on its technical cooperation programmes regarding standards-related measures relating to specific areas of interest.
2. Each Party shall encourage standardizing bodies in its territory to cooperate with the standardizing bodies in the territory of the other Party, such as through membership in international standardizing bodies.
3. To the extent practicable, each Party shall inform the other Party of the international agreements, conventions or programmes it has entered into on standardization measures.
Part Four. INVESTMENT, SERVICES AND RELATED MATTERS
Chapter 9. INVESTMENT
Section A. Definitions
Article 9-01. Definitions
For the purposes of this Chapter:
disputing investor means an investor that makes a claim under Section C;
disputing parties means the disputing investor and the disputing Party;
disputing Party means a Party against which a claim is made under Section C; disputing party means the disputing investor or the disputing Party;
enterprise means an "enterprise" as defined in Article 2-01 (Definitions of General Application), and a branch of an enterprise;
enterprise of a Party means an enterprise constituted or organized under the law of a Party and a branch located in the territory of a Party and carrying out business activities there;
equity or debt securities includes voting and non-voting shares, bonds, convertible debentures, stock options and warrants;
existing means in effect on 14 January 1997;
financial institution means any financial intermediary or other enterprise that is authorized to do business and regulated or supervised as a financial institution under the law of the Party in whose territory it is located;
G7 currency means the currency of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland or the United States of America;
ICSID Convention means the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of other States, done at Washington, 18 March 1965;
ICSID means the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes;
Inter-American Convention means the Inter-American Convention on International Commercial Arbitration, done at Panama, 30 January 1975;
investment means:
(a) an enterprise;
(b) an equity security of an enterprise;
(c) a debt security of an enterprise:
(i) where the enterprise is an affiliate of the investor, or
(ii) where the original maturity of the debt security is at least three years,
but does not include a debt security, regardless of original maturity, of a State or a State enterprise;
(d) a loan to an enterprise:
(i) where the enterprise is an affiliate of the investor, or
(ii) where the original maturity of the loan is at least three years,
but does not include a loan, regardless of original maturity, to a State enterprise;
(e) an interest in an enterprise that entitles the owner to share in income or profits of the enterprise;
(f) an interest in an enterprise that entitles the owner to share in the assets of that enterprise on dissolution, other than a debt security or a loan excluded from subparagraph (c) or (d);
(g) real estate or other property, tangible or intangible, acquired in the expectation or used for the purpose of economic benefit or other business purposes; and
(h) interests arising from the commitment of capital or other resources in the territory of the other Party to economic activity, such as under:
(i) contracts involving the presence of an investor's property in the territory of the other Party, including concessions or construction or turnkey contracts, or
(ii) contracts where remuneration depends substantially on the production, revenues or profits of an enterprise;
but investment does not mean,
(i) claims to money that arise solely from:
(i) commercial contracts for the sale of goods or services by a national or enterprise in the territory of a Party to an enterprise in the territory of the other Party, or
(ii) the extension of credit in connection with a commercial transaction, such as trade financing, other than a loan covered by subparagraph (d); or
(j) any other claims to money,
that do not involve the kinds of interests set out in subparagraphs (a) through (h); or
(k) with respect to "loans" and "debt securities" referred to in subparagraphs (c) and (d) as it applies to investors of the other Party, and investments of such investors, in financial institution in the Party's territory
(i) a loan or debt security issued by a financial institution that is not treated as regulatory capital by the Party in whose territory the financial institution is located,
(ii) a loan granted by or debt security owned by a financial institution, other than a loan to or debt security of a financial institution referred to in subparagraph (i), and