Article 16. General Exceptions
1. Nothing in this Agreement shall be construed to prevent a Contracting Party from adopting or maintaining reasonable measures for prudential reasons, such as:
a. the maintenance of the safety, soundness, integrity or financial responsibility of financial institutions; and
b. ensuring the integrity and stability of a Contracting Party's financial system.
2. a. Nothing in this Agreement shall be construed to prevent a Contracting Party from adopting or maintaining measures that restrict transfers where the Contracting Party experiences serious balance of payments difficulties, or the threat thereof, and such restrictions are consistent with paragraph 2. (b.)
b. Measures referred to in paragraph 2. (a.) shall be equitable, neither arbitrary nor unjustifiably discriminatory, in good faith, of limited duration and may not go beyond what is necessary to remedy the balance of payments situation. A Contracting Party that imposes measures under this Article shall inform the other Contracting Party forthwith and present as soon as possible a time schedule for their removal. Such measures shall be taken in accordance with other international obligations of the Contracting Party concerned, including those under the WTO Agreement and the Articles of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund.
3. Nothing in this Agreement shall be construed:
a. to prevent any Contracting Party from taking any actions that it considers necessary for the protection of its essential security interests
(i) relating to the traffic in arms, ammunition and implements of war and to such traffic and transactions in other goods, materials, services and technology undertaken directly or indirectly for the purpose of supplying a military or other security establishment,
(ii) taken in time of war or other emergency in international relations, or
(iii) relating to the implementation of national policies or international agreements respecting the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices; or
b. to prevent any Contracting Party from taking action in pursuance of its obligations under the United Nations Charter for the maintenance of international peace and security.
4. A Contracting Party's essential security interests may include interests and measures deriving from its membership in a customs, economic or monetary union, a common market or a free trade area.
5. All references in the Agreement to measures of a Contracting Party shall include measures applicable in accordance with its obligations as a member of customs union, economic union, regional integration agreement. References to «serious balance-of-payments difficulties, or the threat thereof», shall include serious balance-of-payments difficulties, or the threat thereof, in the economic or monetary union of which a Contracting Party is a member.
6. The dispute settlement according to Article 9 shall not be considered as treatment, preference or privilege.
7. As far as may be practicable before a Contracting Party denies the benefits of this Agreement to an investor of the other Contracting Party or adopts measures in accordance with its obligations as a member of customs union, economic union, regional integration agreement, it gives notice in writing to the other Contracting Party, unless its international obligations or national laws and regulations prevent the Contracting Party from doing so.
Article 17. Final Provisions, Entry Into Force, Duration, termination and Amendments
1. This Agreement shall apply without prejudice to the obligations of the Contracting Parties deriving from their membership in any existing or future customs union, economic union, regional integration agreement and subject to those obligations. Consequently the provisions of this Agreement may not be invoked or interpreted neither in whole nor in part in such a way as to invalidate, amend or otherwise affect the obligations of the Contracting Parties arising from their membership in any existing or future customs union, economic union, regional integration agreement.
2. The Contracting Parties shall notify each other through diplomatic channels that their internal procedure requirements for the entry into force of this Agreement have been complied with. This Agreement shall enter into force sixty days after the receipt of the last notification.
3. This Agreement shall remain in force for a period of ten years and afterwards shall continue to be in force unless either Contracting Party notifies in writing the other Contracting Party of its intention to terminate this Agreement. The notice of termination shall become effective one year after it has been received by the other Contracting Party but not earlier than the expiry of the initial period of ten years.
4. In respect of investments made prior to the termination of this Agreement, the provisions of this Agreement shall continue to be effective for a period of ten years from the date of termination.
5. This Agreement may be amended by written agreement between the Contracting Parties. Any amendment shall be an integral part of the Agreement and enter into force under the same procedure required for entering into force of the present Agreement.
Conclusion
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the undersigned duly authorized have signed this Agreement.
DONE in duplicate at Minsk, this 14 day of January 2019, in the Russian, Hungarian and English languages, all texts being equally authentic. In case of any divergence of interpretation, the English text shall prevail.
For the Government of the Republic of Belarus
For the Government of Hungary