(e) for Japan, the territory of Japan, and all the area beyond its territorial sea, including the sea-bed and subsoil thereof, over which Japan exercises sovereign rights or jurisdiction in accordance with international law including the UNCLOS and the laws and regulations of Japan;
(f) for Malaysia, its land territory, internal waters and territorial sea, as well as any maritime area situated beyond the territorial sea as designated or that might in the future be designated under its national law, in accordance with international law, as an area within which Malaysia exercises sovereign rights and jurisdiction with regards to the seabed, subsoil and superjacent waters to the seabed and subsoil as well as the natural resources;
(g) for Mexico:
(i) the states of the Federation and the Federal District;
(ii) the islands, including the reefs and keys, in the adjacent seas;
(iii) the islands of Guadalupe and Revillagigedo, situated in the Pacific Ocean;
(iv) the continental shelf and the submarine shelf of such islands, keys and reefs;
(v) the waters of the territorial seas, in accordance with international law, and its interior maritime waters;
(vi) the space located above the national territory, in accordance with international law; and
(vii) any areas beyond the territorial seas of Mexico within which, in accordance with international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea done at Montego Bay on December 10, 1982, and its domestic law, Mexico may exercise sovereign rights or jurisdiction;
(h) for New Zealand, the territory of New Zealand and the exclusive economic zone, seabed and subsoil over which it exercises sovereign rights with respect to natural resources in accordance with international law, but does not include Tokelau;
(i) for Peru, the mainland territory, the islands, the maritime areas and the air space above them, under sovereignty or sovereign rights and jurisdiction of Peru, in accordance with the provisions of the Political Constitution of Peru (Constitución Política del Perú) and other relevant domestic law and international law;
(j) for Singapore, its land territory, internal waters and territorial sea, as well as any maritime area situated beyond the territorial sea which has been or might in the future be designated under its national law, in accordance with international law, as an area within which Singapore may exercise sovereign rights or jurisdiction with regards to the sea, the sea-bed, the subsoil and the natural resources;
(k) for 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) the territorial sea of the United States and any area beyond the territorial sea within which, in accordance with customary international law as reflected in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the United States may exercise sovereign rights or jurisdiction; and
(l) for Viet Nam, the land territory, islands, internal waters, territorial sea, and air space above them, the maritime areas beyond territorial sea including seabed, subsoil and natural resources thereof over which Viet Nam exercises its sovereignty, sovereign rights or jurisdiction in accordance with its domestic laws and international law.
Chapter 2. NATIONAL TREATMENT AND MARKET ACCESS FOR GOODS
Section A. Definitions and Scope
Article 2.1. Definitions
For the purposes of this Chapter:
advertising films and recordings means recorded visual media or audio materials, consisting essentially of images or sound, showing the nature or operation of goods or services offered for sale or lease by a person of a Party, that are of a kind suitable for exhibition to prospective customers but not for broadcast to the general public;
Agreement on Agriculture means the Agreement on Agriculture, set out in Annex 1A to the WTO Agreement;
commercial samples of negligible value means commercial or trade samples: having a value, individually or in the aggregate as shipped, of not more than one US. dollar or the equivalent amount in the currency of another Party; or so marked, torn, perforated or otherwise treated that they are unsuitable for sale or for use except as commercial samples;
consular transactions means requirements that goods of a Party intended for export to the territory of another Party must first be submitted to the supervision of the consul of the importing Party in the territory of the exporting Party for the purpose of obtaining consular invoices or consular visas for commercial invoices, certificates of origin, manifests, shippers' export declarations, or any other customs documentation required on or in connection with importation;
consumed means, with respect to a good:
(a) actually consumed; or
(b) further processed or manufactured:
(i) so as to result in a substantial change in the value, form or use of the good; or
(ii) in the production of another good;
duty-free means free of customs duty;
goods admitted for sports purposes means sports requisites admitted into the territory of the importing Party for use in sports contests, demonstrations or training in the territory of that Party;
goods intended for display or demonstration includes their component parts, ancillary apparatuses and accessories;
import licensing means an administrative procedure requiring the submission of an application or other documentation, other than that generally required for customs clearance purposes, to the relevant administrative body of the importing Party as a prior condition for importation into the territory of that Party;
Import Licensing Agreement means the Agreement on Import Licensing Procedures, set out in Annex 1A to the WTO Agreement;
performance requirement means a requirement that: (a) a given level or percentage of goods or services be exported;
(b) domestic goods or services of the Party granting a waiver of customs duties or an import licence be substituted for imported goods;
(c) a person benefiting from a waiver of customs duties or a requirement for an import licence purchase other goods or services in the territory of the Party that grants the waiver of customs duties or the import licence or accord a preference to domestically produced goods;
(d) a person benefiting from a waiver of customs duties or a requirement for an import licence produce goods or supply services in the territory of the Party that grants the waiver of customs duties or the import licence, with a given level or percentage of domestic content; or
(e) relates in any way the volume or value of imports to the volume or value of exports or to the amount of foreign exchange inflows,
but does not include a requirement that an imported good be:
(f) subsequently exported;
(g) used as a material in the production of another good that is subsequently exported;
(h) substituted by an identical or similar good used as a material in the production of another good that is subsequently exported; or
(i) substituted by an identical or similar good that is subsequently exported; and
printed advertising materials means those goods classified in Chapter 49 of the Harmonized System, including brochures, pamphlets, leaflets, trade catalogues, yearbooks published by trade associations, tourist promotional materials and posters, that are used to promote, publicise or advertise a good or service, are essentially intended to advertise a good or service, and are supplied free of charge.
Article 2.2. Scope
Unless otherwise provided in this Agreement, this Chapter applies to trade in goods of a Party.
Section B. National Treatment and Market Access for Goods
Article 2.3. National Treatment
1. Each Party shall accord national treatment to the goods of the other Parties in accordance with Article III of GATT 1994, including its interpretative notes, and to this end, Article Il of GATT 1994 and its interpretative notes are incorporated into and made part of this Agreement, mutatis mutandis.
2. For greater certainty, the treatment to be accorded by a Party under paragraph 1 means, with respect to a regional level of government, treatment no less favourable than the most favourable treatment that the regional level of 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. Paragraph 1 shall not apply to the measures set out in Annex 2-A (National Treatment and Import and Export Restrictions).
Article 2.4. Elimination of Customs Duties
1. Unless otherwise provided in this Agreement, no Party shall increase any existing customs duty, or adopt any new customs duty, on an originating good.
2. Unless otherwise provided in this Agreement, each Party shall progressively eliminate its customs duties on originating goods in accordance with its Schedule to Annex 2-D (Tariff Commitments).
3. On request of any Party, the requesting Party and one or more other Parties shall consult to consider accelerating the elimination of customs duties set out in their Schedules to Annex 2-D (Tariff Commitments).
4. An agreement between two or more of the Parties to accelerate the elimination of a customs duty on an originating good shall supersede any duty rate or staging category determined pursuant to those Parties' Schedules to Annex 2-D (Tariff Commitments) for that good once approved by each Party to that agreement in accordance with its applicable legal procedures. The parties to that agreement shall inform the other Parties as early as practicable before the new rate of customs duty takes effect.
5. A Party may at any time unilaterally accelerate the elimination of customs duties set out in its Schedule to Annex 2-D (Tariff Commitments) on originating goods of one or more of the other Parties. A Party shall inform the other Parties as early as practicable before the new rate of customs duty takes effect.
6. For greater certainty, no Party shall prohibit an importer from claiming for an originating good the rate of customs duty applied under the WTO Agreement.
7. For greater certainty, a Party may raise a customs duty to the level set out in its Schedule to Annex 2-D (Tariff Commitments) following a unilateral reduction for the respective year.
Article 2.5. Waiver of Customs Duties
1. No Party shall adopt any new waiver of a customs duty, or expand with respect to an existing recipient or extend to any new recipient the application of an existing waiver of a customs duty, that is conditioned, explicitly or implicitly, on the fulfilment of a performance requirement.
2. No Party shall, explicitly or implicitly, condition the continuation of any existing waiver of a customs duty on the fulfilment of a performance requirement.
Article 2.6. Goods Re-entered after Repair and Alteration
1. No Party shall apply a customs duty to a good, regardless of its origin, that re-enters the Party's territory after that good has been temporarily exported from the Party's territory to the territory of another Party for repair or alteration, regardless of whether that repair or alteration could have been performed in the territory of the Party from which the good was exported for repair or alteration or increased the value of the good. (1)
2. No Party shall apply a customs duty to a good, regardless of its origin, admitted temporarily from the territory of another Party for repair or alteration.
3. For the purposes of this Article, "repair or alteration"does not include an operation or process that:
(a) destroys a good's essential characteristics or creates a new or commercially different good; or
(b) transforms an unfinished good into a finished good.
Article 2.7. Duty-Free Entry of Commercial Samples of Negligible Value and Printed Advertising Material
Each Party shall grant duty-free entry to commercial samples of negligible value and printed advertising material imported from the territory of another Party, regardless of their origin, but may require that:
(a) commercial samples of negligible value be imported solely for the solicitation of orders for goods, or services provided from the territory, of another Party or a non-Party; or
(b) printed advertising material be imported in packets that each contain no more than one copy of the material and that neither that material nor those packets form part of a larger consignment.
Article 2.8. Temporary Admission of Goods
1. Each Party shall grant duty-free temporary admission for the following goods, regardless of their origin:
(a) professional equipment, including equipment for the press or television, software, and broadcasting and cinematographic equipment, that is 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 admitted for sports purposes.
2. Each Party shall, at the request of the person concerned and for reasons its customs authority considers valid, extend the time limit for duty-free temporary admission beyond the period initially fixed.
3. No Party shall condition the duty-free temporary admission of the goods referred to in paragraph 1, other than to require that those goods:
(a) be used solely by or under the personal supervision of a national of another Party in the exercise of the business activity, trade, profession or sport of that national of another Party;
(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 goods;
(d) be capable of identification when imported and exported;
(e) be exported on the departure of the national referred to in subparagraph (a), or within any other period reasonably related to the purpose of the temporary admission that the Party may establish, or within one year, unless extended;
(f) be admitted in no greater quantity than is reasonable for their intended use; and
(g) be otherwise admissible into the Party's territory under its laws.
4. Each Party shall grant duty-free temporary admission for containers and pallets regardless of their origin, that are in use or to be used in the shipment of goods in international traffic.
(a) For the purposes of this paragraph, container means an article of transport equipment that is: fully or partially enclosed to constitute a compartment intended for containing goods; substantial and has an internal volume of one cubic metre or more; of a permanent character and accordingly strong enough to be suitable for repeated use; used in significant numbers in international traffic; specially designed to facilitate the carriage of goods by more than one mode of transport without intermediate reloading; and designed both for ready handling, particularly when being transferred from one mode of transport to another, and to be easy to fill and to empty, but does not include vehicles, accessories or spare parts of vehicles or packaging. (2)
(b) For the purposes of this paragraph, pallet means a small, portable platform, which consists of two decks separated by bearers or a single deck supported by feet, on which goods can be moved, stacked and stored, and which is designed essentially for handling by means of fork lift trucks, pallet trucks or other jacking devices.
5. 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 in addition to any other charges or penalties provided for under its law.
6. Each Party shall adopt and maintain procedures providing for the expeditious release of goods admitted under this Article. To the extent possible, those procedures shall provide that when a good admitted under this Article accompanies a national of another Party who is seeking temporary entry, the good shall be released simultaneously with the entry of that national.
7. Each Party shall permit a good temporarily admitted under this Article to be exported through a customs port other than the port through which it was admitted.
8. Each Party shall, in accordance with its law, provide that the importer or other person responsible for a good admitted under this Article shall not be liable for failure to export the good on presentation of satisfactory proof to the importing Party that the good was destroyed within the period fixed for temporary admission, including any lawful extension.
9. Subject to Chapter 9 (Investment) and Chapter 10 (Cross-Border Trade in Services):
(a) each Party shall allow a vehicle or container used in international traffic that enters its territory from the territory of another Party to exit its territory on any route that is reasonably related to the economical and prompt departure of that vehicle or container; (3)
(b) no Party shall require any security or impose any penalty or charge solely by reason of any difference between the customs port of entry and the customs port of departure of a vehicle or container;
(c) no Party shall condition the release of any obligation, including any security, that it imposes in respect of the entry of a vehicle or container into its territory on the exit of that vehicle or container through any particular customs port of departure; and
(d) no Party shall require that the vehicle or carrier bringing a container from the _ territory of another Party into its territory be the same vehicle or carrier that takes that container to the territory of that other Party, or to the territory of any other Party.
10. For the purposes of paragraph 9, vehicle means a truck, a truck tractor, a tractor, a trailer unit or trailer, a locomotive, or a railway car or other railroad equipment.
Article 2.9. Ad Hoc Discussions
1. Each Party shall designate and notify a contact point in accordance with Article 27.5 (Contact Points), to facilitate communications between the Parties on any matter covered by this Chapter, including any request or information conveyed under Article 26.5 (Provision of Information) relating to a measure of a Party that may affect the operation of this Chapter.
2. A Party (the requesting Party) may request ad hoc discussions on any matter arising under this Chapter (including a specific non-tariff measure) that the requesting Party believes may adversely affect its interests in trade in goods, except a matter that could be addressed under a Chapter-specific consultation mechanism established under another Chapter, by delivering a written request to another Party (the requested Party) through its contact point for this Chapter. The request shall be in writing and identify the reasons for the request, including a description of the requesting Party's concerns and an indication of the provisions of this Chapter to which the concerns relate. The requesting Party may provide all the other Parties with a copy of the request.
3. If the requested Party considers that the matter that is the subject of the request should be addressed under a Chapter-specific consultation mechanism established under another Chapter, it shall promptly notify the contact point for this Chapter of the requesting Party and include in its notice the reasons it considers that the request should be addressed under the other mechanism. The requested Party shall promptly forward the request and its notice to the overall contact points of the requesting and requested Parties designated under Article 27.5 (Contact Points) for appropriate action.
4. Within 30 days of receipt of a request under paragraph 2, the requested Party shall provide a written reply to the requesting Party. Within 30 days of the requesting Party's receipt of the reply, the requesting and requested Parties (the discussing Parties) shall meet in person or via electronic means to discuss the matter identified in the request. If the discussing Parties choose to meet in person, the meeting shall take place in the territory of the requested Party, unless the discussing Parties decide otherwise.
5. Any Party may submit a written request to the discussing Parties to participate in the ad hoc discussions. If the matter has not been resolved prior to the receipt of a Party's request to participate and the discussing Parties agree, the Party may participate in these ad hoc discussions subject to any conditions that the discussing Parties may decide.
6. If the requesting Party believes that the matter is urgent, it may request that ad hoc discussions take place within a shorter time frame than that provided for under paragraph 4. Any Party may request urgent ad hoc discussions if a measure:
(a) is applied without prior notice or without an opportunity for a Party to avail itself of ad hoc discussions under paragraphs 2, 3 and 4; and
(b) may threaten to impede the importation, sale or distribution of an originating good which is in the process of being transported from the exporting Party to the importing Party, or has not been released from customs control, or is in storage in a warehouse regulated by the customs administration of the importing Party.
7. Ad hoc discussions under this Article shall be confidential and without prejudice to the rights of any Party, including being without prejudice to rights pertaining to dispute settlement proceedings under Chapter 28 (Dispute Settlement).
Article 2.10. Import and Export Restrictions
1. Unless otherwise provided in this Agreement, no Party shall adopt or maintain any prohibition or restriction on the importation of any good of another Party or on the exportation or sale for export of any good destined for the territory of another Party, except in accordance with Article XI of GATT 1994 and its interpretative notes, and to this end Article XI of GATT 1994 and its interpretative notes are incorporated into and made part of this Agreement, mutatis mutandis.
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) import licensing conditioned on the fulfilment of a performance requirement; or
(c) voluntary export restraints inconsistent with Article VI of GATT 1994, as implemented under Article 18 of the SCM Agreement and Article 8.1 of the AD Agreement.
3. For greater certainty, paragraph 1 applies to the importation of commercial cryptographic goods.
4. For the purposes of paragraph 3:
commercial cryptographic goods means any good implementing or incorporating cryptography, if the good is not designed or modified specifically for government use and is sold or otherwise made available to the public.
5. Paragraphs 1 and 2 shall not apply to the measures set out in Annex 2-A (National Treatment and Import and Export Restrictions).
6. 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 that Party from:
(a) limiting or prohibiting the importation of the good of the non-Party from the territory of another Party; or
(b) requiring, as a condition for exporting the good of that Party to the territory of another 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.
7. 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 any Party, shall consult with a view to avoiding undue interference with or distortion of pricing, marketing, or distribution arrangements in another Party.
8. No Party shall, as a condition for engaging in importation or for the importation of a good, require a person of another Party to establish or maintain a contractual or other relationship with a distributor in its territory. (4)
9. For greater certainty, paragraph 8 does not prevent a Party from requiring a person referred to in that paragraph to designate a point of contact for the purpose of facilitating communications between its regulatory authorities and that person.
10. For the purposes of paragraph 8:
distributor means a person of a Party who is responsible for the commercial distribution, agency, concession or representation in the territory of that Party of goods of another Party.
Article 2.11. Remanufactured Goods
1. For greater certainty, Article 2.10.1 (Import and Export Restrictions) shall apply to prohibitions and restrictions on the importation of remanufactured goods.
2. If a Party adopts or maintains measures prohibiting or restricting the importation of used goods, it shall not apply those measures to remanufactured goods. (5) (6)
Article 2.12. Import Licensing
1. No Party shall adopt or maintain a measure that is inconsistent with the Import Licensing Agreement.
2. Promptly after this Agreement enters into force for a Party, that Party shall notify the other Parties of its existing import licensing procedures, if any. The notice shall include the information specified in Article 5.2 of the Import Licensing Agreement and any information required under paragraph 6.
3. A Party shall be deemed to be in compliance with the obligations in paragraph 2 with respect to an existing import licensing procedure if:
(a) it has notified that procedure to the WTO Committee on Import Licensing provided for in Article 4 of the Import Licensing Agreement together with the information specified in Article 5.2 of that agreement;
(b) in the most recent annual submission due before the date of entry into force of this Agreement for that Party to the WTO Committee on Import Licensing in response to the annual questionnaire on import licensing procedures described in Article 7.3 of the Import Licensing Agreement, it has provided, with respect to that procedure, the information requested in that questionnaire; and
(c) it has included in either the notice described in subparagraph (a) or the annual submission described in subparagraph (b) any information required to be notified to the other Parties under paragraph 6.
4. Each Party shall comply with Article 1.4(a) of the Import Licensing Agreement with respect to any new or modified import licensing procedure. Each Party shall also publish on an official government website any information that it is required to publish under Article 1.4(a) of the Import Licensing Agreement.
5. Each Party shall notify the other Parties of any new import licensing procedures it adopts and any modifications it makes to its existing import licensing procedures, if possible, no later than 60 days before the new procedure or modification takes effect. In no case shall a Party provide the notification later than 60 days after the date of its publication. The notification shall include any information required under paragraph 6. A Party shall be deemed to be in compliance with this obligation if it notifies a new import licensing procedure or a modification to an existing import licensing procedure to the WTO Committee on Import Licensing in accordance with Article 5.1, 5.2 or 5.3 of the Import Licensing Agreement, and includes in its notification any information required to be notified to the other Parties under paragraph 6.
6. (a) A notice under paragraph 2, 3 or 5 shall state if, under any import licensing procedure that is a subject of the notice: