Title
AGREEMENT BETWEEN JAPAN AND THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF BANGLADESH FOR AN ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP
Preamble
Preamble
Japan and the People’s Republic of Bangladesh (hereinafter referred to as “Bangladesh”),
Conscious of their strong diplomatic and economic bond and longstanding friendship that have developed through many years of fruitful and mutually beneficial cooperation and growing trade and investment between the Parties;
Recognizing that the economies of the Parties are endowed with conditions to complement each other and that this complementarity should contribute to further promoting the sustainable economic development in the Parties, by making use of their respective economic strengths through bilateral trade and investment activities;
Seeking to create a clearly established legal framework through mutually advantageous rules to facilitate trade and investment between the Parties, which would enhance the competitiveness of their economies, promote the economic relations and partnership between them, make their markets more efficient and dynamic, and ensure a predictable commercial environment;
Believing that this Agreement will not only contribute to further increasing trade and investment between the Parties but also to strengthening their political and diplomatic relations, which play an important role in the economy as well as peace and stability in the respective regions;
Recognizing that this Agreement contributes to strengthening the free, open, fair and rules-based international economic order that serves as the foundation of economic development, stability and growth of the Parties, and realizing that a dynamic and rapidly changing global environment presents many new economic challenges including non-market policies and practices and coercive economic measures that may undermine such order;
Recognizing that supply chains benefit from the establishment of predictable, fair, and competitive markets that respect the environment, health and safety as well as labor rights, and that secure and resilient supply chains must be developed, maintained and prepared to respond effectively to unexpected events;
Reaffirming the view that this Agreement will be an important framework for strengthening their “Strategic Partnership”; and
Recalling Article XXIV of the GATT 1994 and Article V of the GATS, Have agreed as follows:
Body
Chapter 1. General Provisions
Article 1.1. Objectives
The objectives of this Agreement are to liberalize and facilitate trade and promote investment, as well as to strengthen a closer economic relationship between the Parties.
Article 1.2. General Definitions
For the purposes of this Agreement, unless otherwise specified:
(a) the term “Agreement on Agriculture” means the Agreement on Agriculture in Annex 1A to the WTO Agreement;
(b) the term “Agreement on Customs Valuation” means the Agreement on Implementation of Article VII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 in Annex 1A to the WTO Agreement;
(c) the term “Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures” means the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures in Annex 1A to the WTO Agreement;
(d) the term “Area” means the territory of a Party, and the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf with respect to which that Party exercises sovereign rights or jurisdiction in accordance with international law;
Note: Nothing in this subparagraph shall affect the rights and obligations of the Parties under international law, including those under the UNCLOS.
(e) the term “days” means calendar days, including weekends and holidays;
(f) the term “juridical person” means any entity constituted or organized under applicable law, whether or not for profit, and whether privately-owned or governmentally-owned, including any corporation, trust, partnership, joint venture, sole proprietorship, association, or similar organization, and a branch thereof;
(g) a juridical person is:
(i) “owned” by one or more persons if more than 50 percent of the equity interest in it is owned by the persons;
(ii) “controlled” by one or more persons if the persons have the power to name a majority of its directors or otherwise to legally direct its actions; and
(iii) “affiliated” with another person when it controls, or is controlled by, that other person; or when it and the other person are both controlled by the same person;
(h) the term “juridical person of a Party” means a juridical person constituted or organized under the applicable laws and regulations of a Party;
(i) the term “GATS” means the General Agreement on Trade in Services in Annex 1B to the WTO Agreement;
(j) the term “GATT 1994” means the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 in Annex 1A to the WTO Agreement. For the purposes of this Agreement, references to articles in the GATT 1994 include the interpretative notes;
(k) the term “Harmonized System” or “HS” means the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, including General Rules of Interpretation, Section Notes, Chapter Notes and Subheading Notes, as adopted and administered by the World Customs Organization, set out in the Annex to the International Convention on the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, and adopted and implemented by the Parties in their respective laws;
(l) the term “measure” means any measure by a Party, whether in the form of a law, regulation, rule, procedure, decision, administrative action or any other form;
(m) the term “Parties” means Japan and Bangladesh and the term “Party” means either Japan or Bangladesh;
(n) the term “person” means a natural person or a juridical person;
(o) the term “SPS Agreement” means the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures in Annex 1A to the WTO Agreement;
(p) the term “TRIPS Agreement” means the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights in Annex 1C to the WTO Agreement;
(q) the term “UNCLOS” means the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, done at Montego Bay on December 10, 1982;
(r) the term “WTO” means the World Trade Organization; and
(s) the term “WTO Agreement” means the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, done at Marrakesh on April 15, 1994.
Article 1.3. Confidential Information
1. Each Party shall, in accordance with its laws and regulations, maintain the confidentiality of information provided in confidence by the other Party in accordance with this Agreement.
2. Unless otherwise provided for in this Agreement, nothing in this Agreement shall require a Party to provide confidential information, the disclosure of which would impede the enforcement of its laws and regulations, or otherwise be contrary to the public interest, or which would prejudice legitimate commercial interests of particular enterprises, public or private.
Article 1.4. Taxation
1. Unless otherwise provided for in this Agreement, the provisions of this Agreement shall not apply to any taxation measures.
2. Nothing in this Agreement shall affect the rights and obligations of either Party under any tax convention. In the event of any inconsistency between this Agreement and any such convention, that convention shall prevail to the extent of the inconsistency.
3. Article 1.3 and Chapter 19 shall apply to taxation measures, to the extent that the provisions of this Agreement are applicable to such taxation measures.
Article 1.5. General and Security Exceptions
1. For the purposes of Chapters 2 through 6, 9, 10, 14 and 15, Article XX of the GATT 1994 is incorporated into and made part of this Agreement, mutatis mutandis.
Note: The Parties understand that the measures referred to in subparagraph (b) of Article XX of the GATT 1994 include environmental measures necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or health, and that subparagraph (g) of that Article applies to measures relating to the conservation of living and non-living exhaustible natural resources.
2. For the purposes of Chapters 7 through 10, 14 and 15, Article XIV of the GATS is incorporated into and made part of this Agreement, mutatis mutandis.
Note: The Parties understand that the measures referred to in subparagraph (b) of Article XIV of the GATS include environmental measures necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or health.
3. Nothing in this Agreement shall be construed:
(a) to require a Party to furnish any information the disclosure of which it considers contrary to its essential security interests;
(b) to prevent a Party from taking any action which it considers necessary for the protection of its essential security interests:
(i) relating to fissionable and fusionable materials or the materials from which they are derived;
(ii) relating to the traffic in arms, ammunition and implements of war and to such traffic in other goods and materials, or relating to the supply of services, as carried on directly or indirectly for the purpose of supplying or provisioning a military establishment;
(iii) taken so as to protect critical public infrastructures, whether publicly-owned or privately-owned, including communications, power and water infrastructures; or
(iv) taken in time of national emergency or war or other emergency in international relations; or
(c) to prevent a Party from taking any action in pursuance of its obligations under the United Nations Charter for the maintenance of international peace and security.
Article 1.6. Relation to other Agreements
1. The Parties reaffirm their rights and obligations under the WTO Agreement or any other agreements to which both Parties are parties.
2. In the event of any inconsistency between this Agreement and any agreement to which both Parties are parties, the Parties shall immediately consult with each other with a view to finding a mutually satisfactory solution, taking into consideration general principles of international law.
Article 1.7. Joint Committee
1. The Parties hereby establish a Joint Committee under this Agreement.
2. The functions of the Joint Committee shall be:
(a) reviewing and monitoring the implementation and operation of this Agreement and, when necessary, making appropriate recommendations to the Parties;
(b) considering and recommending to the Parties any amendments to this Agreement;
(c) supervising and coordinating the work of all Sub-Committees established under this Agreement;
(d) adopting:
(i) the Operational Procedures for Trade in Goods referred to in Article 2.22;
(ii) the Operational Procedures for Rules of Origin referred to in Article 3.30;
(iii) the Rules of Procedure for Arbitration Proceedings and the Code of Conduct referred to in subparagraph (c) of Article 21.1 and subparagraph 10(g) of Article 21.8 respectively; and
(iv) any necessary decisions; and
(e) carrying out other functions as the Parties may decide.
3. The Joint Committee:
(a) shall be composed of representatives of the Governments of the Parties; and
(b) may establish and delegate its responsibilities to Sub-Committees.
4. The Joint Committee shall establish its rules and procedures.
5. The Joint Committee shall hold the first meeting on the date of entry into force of this Agreement, and thereafter, meet at such times and venues or by means, as may be decided by the Parties.
Article 1.8. Sub-Committees
1. The following Sub-Committees shall be established on the date of entry into force of this Agreement:
(a) Sub-Committee on Trade in Goods, as provided for in Article 2.21;
(b) Sub-Committee on Rules of Origin, as provided for in Article 3.29;
(c) Sub-Committee on Customs Procedures and Trade Facilitation, as provided for in Article 4.23;
(d) Sub-Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, as provided for in Article 5.5;
(e) Sub-Committee on Technical Regulations, Standards and Conformity Assessment Procedures, as provided for in Article 6.9;
(f) Sub-Committee on Trade in Services, as provided for in Article 7.17;
(g) Sub-Committee on Investment, as provided for in Article 9.19;
(h) Sub-Committee on Government Procurement, as provided for in Article 11.22;
(i) Sub-Committee on Intellectual Property, as provided for in Article 12.66;
(j) Sub-Committee on Improvement of the Business Environment, as provided for in Article 16.2;
(k) Sub-Committee on Labor, as provided for in Article 17.4;
(l) Sub-Committee on Environment, as provided for in Article 18.5; and
(m) Sub-Committee on Cooperation, as provided for in Article 20.4.
2. The Sub-Committees shall carry out the functions specified in the corresponding Articles referred to in paragraph 1.
Article 1.9. Communications
Each Party shall designate a contact point to facilitate communications between the Parties on any matter related to this Agreement.
Chapter 2. Trade In Goods
Section 1. General Rules
Article 2.1. Definitions
For the purposes of this Chapter:
(a) the term “Agreement on Anti-Dumping” means the Agreement on Implementation of Article VI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 in Annex 1A to the WTO Agreement;
(b) the term “Agreement on Safeguards” means the Agreement on Safeguards in Annex 1A to the WTO Agreement;
(c) the term “bilateral safeguard measure” means a bilateral safeguard measure provided for in paragraph 2 of Article 2.10;
(d) the term “customs duty” means any customs or import duty and a charge of any kind, including any form of surtax or surcharge, imposed in connection with the importation of a good, but does not include any:
(i) charge equivalent to an internal tax imposed consistently with the provisions of paragraph 2 of Article III of the GATT 1994, in respect of the like goods or, directly competitive or substitutable goods of the Party or in respect of goods from which the imported goods have been manufactured or produced in whole or in part;
(ii) anti-dumping or countervailing duty applied pursuant to a Party’s law and applied consistently with the provisions of Article VI of the GATT 1994, the Agreement on Anti-Dumping and the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures; or
(iii) fees or other charges commensurate with the cost of services rendered;
(e) the term “customs value of goods” means the value of goods for the purpose of levying ad valorem customs duties on imported goods;
(f) the term “domestic industry” means the producers as a whole of the like or directly competitive goods operating in a Party, or those whose collective output of the like or directly competitive goods constitutes a major proportion of the total domestic production of those goods;
(g) the term “export subsidy” means subsidies contingent, in law or in fact, whether solely or as one of several other conditions, upon export performance including those illustrated in Annex I of the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures or export subsidies listed in subparagraphs 1(a) through (f) of Article 9 of the Agreement on Agriculture;
Note 1: This standard is met when the facts demonstrate that the granting of a subsidy, without having been made legally contingent upon export performance, is in fact tied to actual or anticipated exportation or export earnings. The mere fact that a subsidy is granted to enterprises which export shall not for that reason alone be considered to be an export subsidy within the meaning of Article 3.1 of the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures.
Note 2: Measures referred to in Annex I of the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures as not constituting export subsidies shall not be prohibited under Article 3.1 or any other provision of the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures.
(h) the term “Import Licensing Agreement” means the Agreement on Import Licensing Procedures in Annex 1A to the WTO Agreement;
(i) the term “import licensing procedure” means an administrative procedure requiring the submission of an application or other documentation (other than that required for customs purposes) to the relevant administrative body of the importing Party as a prior condition for importation into the territory of the importing Party;
(j) the term “originating good” means a good which qualifies as an originating good in accordance with Chapter 3;
(k) the term “provisional bilateral safeguard measure” means a provisional bilateral safeguard measure provided for in paragraph 1 of Article 2.15;
(l) the term “serious injury” means a significant overall impairment in the position of a domestic industry; and
(m) the term “threat of serious injury” means serious injury that is clearly imminent, on the basis of facts and not merely on allegation, conjecture or remote possibility.
Article 2.2. Classification of Goods
The classification of goods in trade between the Parties shall be in conformity with the Harmonized System.
Article 2.3. National Treatment
Each Party shall accord national treatment to the goods of the other Party in accordance with Article III of the GATT 1994, and to this end Article III of the GATT 1994 is incorporated into and forms part of this Agreement, mutatis mutandis.
Article 2.4. Elimination or Reduction of Customs Duties
1. Unless otherwise provided for in this Agreement, each Party shall eliminate or reduce its customs duties on originating goods of the other Party in accordance with its Schedule in Annex 1.
2. Each Party shall, in cases where its most-favored-nation applied rate of customs duty on a particular good becomes lower than the rate of customs duty to be applied in accordance with paragraph 1 on the originating good which is classified under the same tariff line as that particular good, apply the lower rate of customs duty with respect to that originating good regardless of whether an importer has claimed for preferential tariff treatment referred to in subparagraph (o) of Article 3.1 or not.
Article 2,5. Customs Valuation
For the purpose of determining the customs value of goods traded between the Parties, the provisions of Part I of the Agreement on Customs Valuation shall apply mutatis mutandis.
Article 2.6. Export Duties
Each Party shall endeavor to minimize its duties on goods exported from the Party to the other Party.
Article 2.7. Export Subsidies
Neither Party shall introduce or maintain any export subsidy on any good destined for the other Party, inconsistent with the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures and the Ministerial Decision of December 19, 2015 on Export Competition (WT/MIN(15)/45, WT/L/980), adopted at Nairobi on December 19, 2015.
Article 2.8. Import and Export Restrictions
1. Neither Party shall introduce or maintain any prohibition or restriction other than customs duties on the importation of any good of the other Party or on the exportation or sale for export of any good destined for the other Party, inconsistent with its obligations under the relevant provisions of the WTO Agreement.
2. In cases where a Party introduces a prohibition or restriction other than customs duties taken consistently with the provisions of the WTO Agreement, with respect to the importation from, or the exportation to, the other Party of a good upon which the Parties agree, the former Party shall make available, and endeavor to notify, relevant information to the other Party, prior to the introduction of such prohibition or restriction, or as soon as possible thereafter, in a manner consistent with the laws and regulations of the former Party.
Note: A Party may comply with this paragraph by providing the relevant information to the other Party through the relevant procedures under the WTO Agreement.
Article 2.9. Import Licensing Procedures
1. Each Party shall ensure that all automatic and non-automatic import licensing procedures are implemented in a transparent and predictable manner, and applied in accordance with the Import Licensing Agreement. Neither Party shall introduce or maintain a measure that is inconsistent with the Import Licensing Agreement.
2. Each Party shall notify the other Party of any new import licensing procedure and any modification it makes to its existing import licensing procedures, to the extent possible 30 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. A notification provided under this paragraph shall include the information specified in Article 5 of the Import Licensing Agreement. A Party shall be deemed to be in compliance with this paragraph 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 paragraph 1, 2, or 3 of Article 5 of the Import Licensing Agreement.
3. Before applying any new or modified import licensing procedure, a Party shall publish the new procedure or modification on an official government website. Such publication shall take place, whenever practicable, 21 days prior to the effective date of the requirement but in all events not later than such effective date.
4. Each Party shall, on request of the other Party, promptly and to the extent possible, respond to the request of that other Party for information on a measure relating to an import licensing procedure of general application.
5. If a Party denies an import license application with respect to a good of the other Party, it shall, on request of the applicant or the other Party and within a reasonable period of time after receiving the request, provide the applicant or the other Party with an explanation of the reason for the denial.
Section 2. Safeguard Measures
Article 2.10. Application of Bilateral Safeguard Measures
1. Subject to the provisions of this Section, a Party may apply a bilateral safeguard measure, to the minimum extent necessary to prevent or remedy the serious injury to its domestic industry and to facilitate adjustment thereof, if an originating good of the other Party, as a result of the elimination or reduction of a customs duty in accordance with Article 2.4, is being imported into the former Party in such increased quantities, in absolute terms, and under such conditions that the imports of that originating good constitute cause of serious injury or threat of serious injury, to a domestic industry of the former Party.
2. A Party may, as a bilateral safeguard measure:
(a) suspend the further reduction of any rate of customs duty on the originating good provided for in this Chapter; or