8. The Parties recognize their mutual obligations relating to domestic regulation in Article VI:4 of the GATS and affirm their commitment to the development of any necessary disciplines thereunder. To the extent that any such disciplines are adopted by WTO Members or developed in another multilateral forum in which the Parties participate, the Parties shall jointly review them, as appropriate, with a view to determining whether such results should be incorporated into this Chapter.
9. This Article shall not apply to measures that a Party adopts or maintains in accordance with its Schedule of Specific Commitments in Annex 9.6.
Article 9.9. Recognition
1. For purposes of compliance, in whole or in part, with the standards or criteria for the authorization or certification of service suppliers or the licensing thereof, and subject to the requirements of paragraph 4, a Party may recognize education or experience obtained, requirements met, or licenses or certificates granted in a particular country. Such recognition, which may be effected by harmonization or otherwise, may be based on an agreement or arrangement with the country concerned and may be granted on an autonomous basis.
2. Where a Party recognizes, autonomously or by means of an agreement or arrangement, education or experience obtained, requirements fulfilled or licenses or certificates granted in the territory of a non-Party, nothing in this Chapter shall be construed to require the Party to grant such recognition to education or experience obtained, requirements fulfilled or licenses or certificates granted in the territory of the other Party.
3. A Party that is a party to an existing or future agreement or arrangement of the type referred to in paragraph 1 shall provide adequate opportunities for the other Party, if that other Party is interested, to negotiate its accession to such an agreement or arrangement or to negotiate with it an agreement or arrangement comparable thereto. Where a Party grants recognition autonomously, it shall provide adequate opportunities for the other Party to demonstrate that education, experience, licenses or certificates obtained or requirements fulfilled in the territory of that other Party should be subject to recognition.
4. No Party shall grant recognition in a manner that would constitute a means of discrimination between countries in the application of its standards or criteria for recognition, authorization or certification of service suppliers or the granting of licenses to them or a disguised restriction on trade in services.
Article 9.10. Subsidies
Notwithstanding the provisions of Article 9.2.4 (d):
(a) The Parties shall, to the extent practicable, periodically exchange information on subsidies, including grants, tax exemptions or rebates, and existing or future government-supported loans, guarantees and insurance related to trade in services. The first exchange shall take place no later than two (2) years after the entry into force of this Agreement.
(b) The Parties recognize their mutual obligations under Article XV of the GATS and affirm their commitment to the development of any necessary disciplines under that Article. To the extent that any such disciplines are adopted by WTO Members or developed in another multilateral forum in which the Parties participate, the Parties shall jointly review them, as appropriate, with a view to determining whether such results should be incorporated into this Chapter.
Article 9.11. Complementary Services
The Parties shall endeavor to publish, update and exchange information on their service suppliers that they consider relevant, in particular the services provided by enterprises, with the objective of promoting insertion in regional value chains.
Article 9.12. Denial of Benefits
Subject to prior notification, a Party may deny the benefits of this Chapter to a service supplier of the other Party if the service supplier:
(a) Is a legal person that has no substantial business activities in the territory of the other Party, or
(b) A person who provides the service from the territory of a non-Party.
Article 9.13. Professional Services
The additional provisions relating to professional services are included in the Annex 9.13 of this Chapter.
Annex 9.13. PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
General Provisions Processing of applications for the granting of licenses and certificates
1. The Parties shall encourage their competent authorities to ensure that, within a reasonable time after an application for licenses or certificates is submitted by a natural person of the other Party:
(a) Decide on the application and notify the applicant of its decision, or
(b) If it is incomplete, inform the applicant, without undue delay, of the status of the application and the additional information required under its legal system.
Development of professional standards
2. The Parties shall encourage the Professional Councils in their respective territories to develop mutually acceptable standards and criteria for the licensing and certification of professional service providers, as well as to submit their recommendations and findings, which may be considered by the Bilateral Administrative Commission.
3. The standards and criteria referred to in paragraph 2 may be developed in relation to:
(a) Education: accreditation of schools or academic programs;
(b) Examinations: qualifying examinations for licensing, including alternative methods of evaluation;
(c) Experience: duration and nature of experience required to obtain a license;
(d) Conduct and ethics: standards of professional conduct and the nature of disciplinary measures in the event that professional service providers contravene them;
(e) Professional development and certification renewal: continuing education and the corresponding requirements to maintain professional certification;
(f) Scope of action: extent and limits of authorized activities;
(g) Local knowledge: requirements on knowledge of aspects such as local laws and regulations, language, geography or climate;
(h) Consumer protection: alternative requirements to residency, such as bonding, professional liability insurance and client reimbursement funds to ensure consumer protection and public safety; and
(i) Guardian: incorporation of the figure of the guardian, at the discretion of the intervening parties.
4. Each Party shall encourage its respective competent authorities to implement any recommendations accepted by the Bilateral Administrative Commission, as provided in paragraph 2, within a mutually agreed time frame.
Granting of temporary licenses
5. Where agreed by both Parties, each Party shall encourage the relevant agencies in their respective territories to:
(a) Develop procedures for the issuance of temporary licenses to professional service providers of the other Party;
(b) Incorporate the system of specific agreements for each Professional Association according to the specialty, and
(c) Formulate the unified professional acquis for each professional applying for temporary practice.
Review
6. The Bilateral Administrative Commission shall monitor the implementation of the provisions of this Annex.
Chapter 10. TELECOMMUNICATION
Article 10.1. Definitions
For the purposes of this Chapter:
leased circuits means telecommunications facilities between two or more designated points that are intended for the dedicated use or availability to a particular customer or to other users of the customer's choice;
co-location means access to and use of physical space for the purpose of installing, maintaining or repairing equipment on premises owned or controlled and used by a major supplier for the provision of telecommunications services;
network element means a facility or equipment used in the provision of a telecommunications service, including the features, functions and capabilities that are provided through such facilities or equipment;
essential facilities means the functions and elements of a telecommunications network or service that are essential to the operation of a telecommunications network or service:
(a) Are supplied exclusively or predominantly by a single or limited number of suppliers, and
(b) It is not economically or technically feasible to replace them for the purpose of providing a service.
interconnection means the physical/logical and functional link with providers supplying telecommunication services for the purpose of enabling users of one provider to communicate with users of another provider and to access services supplied by another provider;
non-discriminatory means treatment no less favorable than that accorded, in like circumstances, to any other user of similar telecommunications services;
reference interconnection offer means an interconnection offer offered by a major supplier and registered with or approved by the telecommunications regulatory body that is sufficiently detailed to enable telecommunications service providers willing to accept such tariffs (1), terms and conditions to obtain interconnection without having to engage in negotiations with the supplier in question;
telecommunications regulatory body means the body or bodies of a Party responsible for the regulation of telecommunications;
cost-oriented means cost-based, and may include reasonable profitability and involve different costing methodologies for different facilities or services;
portability means the ability of users of telecommunications services to keep the same telephone numbers, without loss of quality and reliability when changing to a similar telecommunications service provider;
major supplier means a supplier of telecommunications services that has the ability to significantly affect the conditions of participation - from a pricing and supply point of view - in the relevant market for telecommunications services, as a result of:
(a) Control of essential facilities, or
(b) The use of its position in the market.
public telecommunications network means the telecommunications infrastructure used to provide telecommunications services;
international roaming means a commercial mobile service provided pursuant to a commercial agreement between telecommunications service providers that allows users to use their local cell phone or other device for voice, data or text messaging services while outside the territory in which the user's home network is located;
telecommunications service means any telecommunications service that a Party provides, explicitly or in fact, to be offered to the general public. Such services may include, but are not limited to, telephony, data transmission and intermediate services (2) that typically incorporate customer-supplied information between two or more points without any end-to-end change in the form or content of such information;
telecommunications means any transmission, emission or reception of signs, signals, writings, images, sounds and information of any nature, by physical line, radioelectricity, optical means or other electromagnetic systems;
enabling title means the licenses, concessions, permits, registrations or other types of authorizations that a Party may require to supply telecommunications services;
user means an end consumer or a subscriber to a telecommunications service.
Article 10.2. Scope of Application
1. This Chapter applies to:
(a) Measures related to access to and use of public networks and telecommunications services;
(b) Measures related to the obligations of telecommunications service providers, and
(c) Other measures related to public networks and telecommunications services.
2. This Chapter does not apply to measures relating to radio or television broadcasting and cable distribution of radio or television programming, except to ensure that enterprises providing such services have continued access to and use of public networks and telecommunications services in accordance with Article 10.3.
3. Nothing in this Chapter shall be construed to mean:
(a) Oblige a Party to require any enterprise to establish, construct, acquire, lease, operate or supply telecommunications networks or services, when such networks or services are not offered to the general public;
(b) Oblige a Party to require any enterprise, engaged exclusively in the broadcasting or cable distribution of radio or television programming, to make its cable distribution or broadcasting facilities available as a public telecommunications network; or
(c) Prevent a Party from prohibiting persons operating private networks from using them to supply telecommunications services to third parties.
Article 10.3. Access to and Use of Telecommunication Networks and Services
1. Each Party shall ensure that the enterprises of the other Party have access to and may make use of any telecommunications service offered in its territory or on a cross- border basis on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms and conditions. This obligation shall be applied, including, inter alia, as specified in paragraphs 2 through 6.
2. Each Party shall ensure that such enterprises are permitted:
(a) Purchase or lease and connect terminals or equipment that interface with public telecommunications networks;
(b) To provide services to individual or multiple users through owned or leased circuits;
(c) Connect own or leased circuits with public networks and telecommunications services or with circuits owned or leased by another company, and
(d) Perform switching, routing, signaling, addressing, processing and conversion functions.
3. Each Party shall endeavor to ensure that enterprises of the other Party may use public telecommunications networks and services to transmit information in its territory or across its borders and to access information contained in databases or stored in machine-readable form in the territory of either Party.
4. Notwithstanding paragraph 3, a Party may take measures that are necessary to ensure the security and confidentiality of messages, or to protect the privacy of users' personal data, provided that such measures are not applied in a manner that would constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination or a disguised restriction on trade in services.
5. Each Party shall ensure that no conditions are imposed on access to and use of public telecommunications networks and services other than those necessary for:
(a) Safeguarding the responsibilities of providers of public telecommunications networks and services, in particular, their ability to make their networks or services available to the general public; or
(b) Protect the technical integrity of public networks or telecommunications services.
6. Provided that the criteria set forth in paragraph 5 are met, the conditions for access to and use of public telecommunications networks and services may include:
(a) Requirements to use specific technical interfaces, including interface protocols, for interconnection with such networks and services;
(b) Requirements, when necessary, for the inter-operability of such networks and services;
(c) The homologation or approval of terminal equipment or other equipment interfacing with the network and technical requirements related to the connection of such equipment to such networks, and
(d) Notification, registration and granting of the enabling title.
Article 10.4. Use of Telecommunication Networks In Emergency Situations
1. Each Party shall endeavor to adopt the necessary measures to ensure that telecommunication companies transmit, at no cost to users, the alert messages defined by its competent authority in emergency situations (3).
2. Each Party shall encourage telecommunications service suppliers to protect their networks against serious failures caused by emergency situations, in order to ensure public access to telecommunications services in such situations.
3. The Parties shall endeavor to manage, in a joint and coordinated manner, actions in the field of telecommunications in emergency situations, and the planning of fault resilient networks, aimed at mitigating the impact of large-scale natural disasters.
4. Each Party shall adopt the necessary measures for mobile telephone service providers to grant the possibility of making calls to the free emergency numbers of that Party to international roaming users of the other Party, in accordance with its national coverage.
Article 10.5. Interconnection between Suppliers General Terms and Conditions of Interconnection
1. Each Party shall ensure that suppliers of telecommunications services in its territory provide interconnection to suppliers of telecommunications services of the other Party:
(a) Any technically feasible point in its network;
(b) Under non-discriminatory terms, conditions (including technical standards and specifications) and rates;
(c) Of a quality no less favorable than that provided by such telecommunications service providers to their own similar services, to similar services of non-affiliated service providers, or to similar services of their subsidiaries or other affiliates;
(d) In a timely manner, on terms, conditions (including technical standards and specifications) and cost-oriented tariffs that are transparent, reasonable, taking into account economic feasibility, and sufficiently unbundled so that providers need not pay for network components or facilities that they do not require for the service to be provided, and
(e) Upon request, at points in addition to the network termination points offered to most users, subject to charges reflecting the cost of constructing the necessary additional facilities.
2. In carrying out paragraph 1, each Party shall ensure that suppliers of telecommunications services in its territory take reasonable steps to protect the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information of, or relating to, suppliers and users of telecommunications services, and only use such information to supply those services.
Interconnection options
3. Each Party shall ensure that telecommunications service suppliers of the other Party may interconnect their facilities and equipment with those of telecommunications service suppliers in its territory, in accordance with at least one of the following options:
(a) A teference interconnection offer containing rates, terms and conditions that telecommunications service providers offer each other;
(b) The terms and conditions of an existing interconnection agreement, or (c) Through the negotiation of a new interconnection agreement. Public availability of interconnection negotiation procedures.
4. Each Party shall make publicly available the procedures applicable to interconnection negotiations with suppliers of telecommunications services in its territory. Public availability of tariffs, terms and conditions necessary for interconnection.
5. Each Party shall provide the means for telecommunications service suppliers of the other Party to obtain the necessary rates, terms and conditions for interconnection offered by a telecommunications service supplier, in accordance with each Party's legal system. Such means include, at a minimum, ensuring:
(a) The public availability of tariffs, terms and conditions for interconnection with a telecommunications service provider established by the telecommunications regulatory agency or other competent body, or
(b) The public availability of the reference interconnection offer.
Article 10.6. Portability
Each Party shall ensure that telecommunications service suppliers in its territory provide portability (in those services provided for in its legal system), in a timely manner, and on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms and conditions.
Article 10.7. Stolen, Stolen or Lost Mobile Terminal Equipment
1. Each Party shall establish procedures that allow telecommunications service providers established in its territory to exchange and block in their networks the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) codes or other similar codes of mobile terminal equipment reported in the territory of the other Party as stolen, lost or stolen, or to implement mechanisms that inhibit or prevent the use of cloned IMEI codes.
2. The procedures referred to in paragraph 1 shall include the use of such databases as the Parties may agree for that purpose.
Article 10.8. Internet Traffic
The Parties shall endeavor to:
(a) Promote the interconnection within the territory of each Party of all Internet Service Providers ("ISPs") through new Internet traffic exchange points ("ITPs"), as well as promote interconnection between the Parties' ITPs;
(b) Adopt or maintain measures to ensure that public works projects (4) include mechanisms to facilitate the deployment of fiber optic or other telecommunications networks;
(c) Develop and coordinate strategies that allow the aggregation of traffic demand with the objective of encouraging projects that make possible the connection with other countries and regions, and
(d) Adopt policies that promote the installation of Internet content generation centers and distribution networks in their respective territories.
Article 10.9. Universal Service
Each Party has the right to define the type of universal service obligations it wishes to adopt or maintain and shall administer such obligations in a transparent, non-discriminatory and competitively neutral manner, and shall ensure that universal service obligations are no more burdensome than necessary for the type of universal service that has been defined.
Article 10.10. Network Neutrality
Each Party shall adopt or maintain measures to ensure compliance with net neutrality (5) without discrimination or blocking of services.
Article 10.11. Competitive Safeguards
1. Each Party shall maintain appropriate measures with the objective of preventing suppliers, individually or jointly, from employing or continuing to employ anti-competitive practices.
2. Anticompetitive practices may include abuse of dominant position, and all practices and conducts, individual or concerted, that have the effect of restricting, limiting, preventing or distorting competition in the telecommunications market.
Article 10.12. Treatment of Major Suppliers
Each Party shall ensure that major suppliers in its territory accord to telecommunications service suppliers of the other Party treatment no less favorable than that accorded by such major suppliers, in like circumstances, to their subsidiaries, their affiliates or non-affiliated service suppliers, with respect to:
(a) The availability, supply, rates or quality of similar telecommunications services; and
(b) The availability of technical interfaces necessary for interconnection.
Article 10.13. Resale
Each Party, in accordance with its legal system, shall ensure that major suppliers in its territory:
(a) Offer for resale, at reasonable rates (6), to telecommunications service suppliers of the other Party, telecommunications services that such major suppliers supply at retail to users, and
(b) Do not impose discriminatory or unjustified conditions or limitations on the resale of such services.
Article 10.14. Disaggregation of Network Elements
1. Each Party shall give its telecommunications regulatory body the authority to require major suppliers in its territory to provide to telecommunications service suppliers of the other Party access to network elements on an unbundled basis on terms, conditions and cost-oriented rates that are reasonable, non-discriminatory and transparent.