2. Each Party shall maintain an authority or authorities responsible for the enforcement of its competition laws.
Article 4. Principles In Law Enforcement
1. Each Party shall be consistent with the principles of transparency, nondiscrimination and procedural fairness in competition law enforcement.
2. Each Party shall apply its competition laws to all entities engaged in commercial activities, subject to exclusions or exemptions provided for under its laws. Such exclusions or exemptions should be transparent and be based on public policy or public interest grounds.
3. Each Party shall apply and enforce its competition laws in a manner, which does not, in like circumstances, discriminate on the basis of nationality.
4. Each Party shall ensure that before it imposes a sanction, or additional restrictive condition or any other remedy, whichever is applicable under the Party’s domestic laws, against any person for violating its competition laws, it affords that person a reasonable opportunity to present opinion or evidence in its defence.
5. Each Party shall provide any person that is subject to the imposition of a sanction, or additional restrictive condition or any other remedy, whichever is applicable under the Party’s domestic laws, for violation of its competition laws, with the opportunity to seek review of the sanction, or additional restrictive condition or any other remedy under that Party's laws.
Article 5. Transparency
1. Each Party shall make public its competition laws, including procedural rules for investigation.
2. Each Party shall ensure that a final decision by a competition authority finding a violation of its competition laws is in writing, and sets out relevant findings of fact and the legal basis for the decision.
3. Each Party shall make public the grounds for any final decision or order to impose a sanction, or additional restrictive condition or any other remedy, whichever is applicable under the Party’s domestic laws, and any appeal therefrom, subject to that Party’s:
(a) (i) domestic laws and regulations;
(ii) need to safeguard confidential information; or
(iii) need to safeguard information on grounds of public policy or public interest; and
(b) redactions of the final decision or order on the grounds in (a)(i) to (iii) above.
Article 6. Cooperation In Law Enforcement
1. The Parties recognise the importance of cooperation and coordination between the respective competition authorities to promote effective competition law enforcement. Accordingly, each Party shall, on a best endeavour basis, cooperate through notification, consultation, exchange of information and technical cooperation.
2. The Parties agree to cooperate in a manner compatible with their respective laws, regulations and important interests, and within their reasonably available resources.
Article 7. Consultation
In order to foster understanding between the Parties, or to address specific matters that arise under this Chapter, a Party shall, on request of the other Party (the “requesting Party”), enter into consultations with the requesting Party. In its request, the requesting Party shall indicate, if relevant, how the matter affects trade or investment between the Parties. The Party addressed shall accord full and sympathetic consideration to the concerns of the requesting Party.
Article 8. Technical Cooperation
The Parties may promote technical cooperation, including exchange of experiences, capacity-building through training programmes, workshops and research collaborations for the purpose of enhancing each Party's capacity related to competition policy and law enforcement.
Article 9. Independence of Competition Law Enforcement
1. Each Party shall ensure independence in decision-making by its authority or authorities in relation to enforcement of competition laws.
2. The obligations under this Chapter shall not prejudice the independence of each Party in enforcing its respective competition laws.
Article 10. Non-Application of Dispute Settlement
Neither Party shall have recourse to Chapter 12 (Dispute Settlement) for any matter arising under this Chapter.
Chapter 17. ENVIRONMENT AND TRADE
Article 1. Context and Objectives
1. Recalling the Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment of 1972, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development of 1992, Agenda 21 of 1992, the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation on Sustainable Development of 2002, the Rio+20 Outcome Document “The Future We Want” of 2012, and the Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Parties acknowledge that economic development, social development and environmental protection are interdependent and mutually supportive components of sustainable development.
2. The Parties reaffirm their commitments to promoting economic development in such a way as to contribute to the objective of sustainable development.
3. The Parties agree that environmental standards should not be used for trade protectionist purposes.
Article 2. Levels of Protection
1. The Parties reaffirm each Party’s sovereign right to establish its own levels of environmental protection and its own environmental development priorities, and adopt or modify its environmental laws and policies.
2. Each Party shall seek to ensure that those laws and policies provide for and encourage high levels of environmental protection, and shall strive to implement these laws and policies effectively. Each Party shall also strive to continue to improve its respective levels of environmental protection.
Article 3. Multilateral Environmental Agreements
1. The Parties recognise that multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) play an important role globally and domestically in protecting the environment. The Parties further recognise that this Chapter can contribute to realising the goals of such agreements.
2. The Parties strive to consult and cooperate as appropriate with respect to MEAs to which both Parties are party, on trade-related environmental issues of mutual interest.
Article 4. Enforcement of Environmental Measures Including Laws and Regulations
1. A Party shall not fail to effectively enforce its environmental measures including laws and regulations, through a sustained or recurring course of action or inaction, in a manner affecting trade or investment between the Parties.
2. The Parties recognise that it is inappropriate to encourage trade or investment by weakening or reducing the protections afforded in its environmental laws, regulations, policies and practices. Accordingly, neither Party shall waive or otherwise derogate from such laws, regulations, policies and practices in a manner that weakens or reduces the protections afforded in those laws, regulations, policies and practices.
3. Nothing in this Chapter shall be construed to empower a Party’s authorities to undertake environmental law enforcement activities in the territory of the other Party.
Article 5. Bilateral Cooperation
Recognising the importance of cooperation on environmental issues in achieving the goals of sustainable development, the Parties commit to implementing cooperation through existing bilateral agreements, such as the Memorandum of Understanding on Environmental Cooperation between the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources of the Republic of Singapore and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China signed on 12 November 2018, and to enhancing cooperation in areas of common interest as appropriate.
Article 6. Institutional Arrangement
Each Party shall designate an office within its administration which shall serve as a contact point with the other Party for the purposes of promoting communication for the implementation of this Chapter.
Article 7. Non-Application of Dispute Settlement
Neither Party shall have recourse to Chapter 12 (Dispute Settlement) for any matter arising under this Chapter.
Chapter 18. TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES
Article 1 Definitions
For the purposes of this Chapter:
(a) cost-oriented means based on cost, and may include a reasonable profit, and may involve different cost methodologies for different facilities or services;
(b) end user means a subscriber to or a final consumer of public telecommunications networks or services, including a service supplier other than a supplier of public telecommunications networks or services;
(c) essential facilities means facilities of a public telecommunications network or service that:
(i) are exclusively or predominantly provided by a single or limited number of suppliers; and
(ii) cannot feasibly be economically or technically substituted in order to provide a service;
(d) interconnection means linking with suppliers providing public telecommunications networks or services in order to allow the users of one supplier to communicate with users of another supplier and to access services provided by another supplier;
(e) international mobile roaming service means a commercial mobile service provided pursuant to a commercial agreement between suppliers of public telecommunications networks or services that enables end users to use their home mobile handset or other device for voice, data, or messaging services while outside the territory in which the end user’s home public telecommunications network is located;
(f) leased circuits means telecommunications facilities between two or more designated points that are set aside for the dedicated use of, or availability to, particular users, regardless of the technology used to establish the said telecommunications facilities;
(g) licence means any authorisation that a Party may require of a person, in accordance with its laws and regulations, in order for such a person to offer a telecommunications network or service, including concessions, permits, or registrations;
(h) major supplier means a supplier of public telecommunications networks or services that has the ability to materially affect the terms of participation, having regard to price and supply, in the relevant market for public telecommunications networks or services as a result of:
(i) control over essential facilities; or
(ii) use of its position in the market;
(i) non-discriminatory means treatment no less favourable than that accorded to any other user of like public telecommunications networks or services in like circumstances;
(j) number portability means the ability of an end user of public telecommunications services to retain the same telephone numbers when switching between the same category of suppliers of public telecommunications services;
(k) physical co-location means access to space in order to install, maintain, or repair equipment at premises owned or controlled and used by a major supplier to supply public telecommunications services;
(l) public telecommunications network means public telecommunications infrastructure used to provide public telecommunications services between and among defined network termination points;
(m) public telecommunications service means any telecommunications service required, explicitly or in effect, by a Party to be offered to the public generally. Such services may include telegraph, telephone, telex, and data transmission typically involving the real-time transmission of customer-supplied information between two or more defined points without any endto-end change in the form or content of the customer's information;
(n) reference interconnection offer means an interconnection offer extended by a major supplier and filed with, approved by or determined by a telecommunications regulatory body that sufficiently details the terms, rates and conditions for interconnection so that a supplier of public telecommunications services that is willing to accept it may obtain interconnection with the major supplier on that basis, without having to engage in negotiations with the major supplier concerned;
(o) telecommunications means the transmission and reception of signals by any electromagnetic means;
(p) telecommunications regulatory body means any body or bodies responsible under the laws and regulations of a Party for the regulation of telecommunications;
(q) user means an end user or a supplier of public telecommunications networks or services; and
(r) virtual co-location means an arrangement whereby a requesting supplier that seeks co-location may specify equipment to be used in the premises of a major supplier but does not obtain physical access to those premises and allows the major supplier to install, maintain and repair that equipment.
Article 2 Scope
1. This Chapter shall apply to measures by a Party affecting trade in public telecommunications services, including:
(a) measures relating to access to and use of public telecommunications networks or services; and
(b) measures relating to obligations regarding suppliers of public telecommunications networks or services.
2. This Chapter shall not apply to any measure affecting broadcast or cable distribution of radio or television programming, except that paragraph 1 of Article 4 (Access and Use) shall apply with respect to a cable or broadcast service supplier’s access to and use of public telecommunications services.
3. Nothing in this Chapter shall be construed to:
(a) require a Party to authorise a service supplier of another Party to establish, construct, acquire, lease, operate, or supply telecommunications networks or services, other than the former Party’s commitments under Chapter 8 (Cross-Border Trade in Services); or
(b) require a Party, or require a Party to oblige a service supplier under its jurisdiction, to establish, construct, acquire, lease, operate, or supply telecommunications networks or services not offered to the public generally.
Article 3 Approaches to Regulation
1. The Parties recognise the value of competitive markets to deliver a wide choice in the supply of telecommunications services and to enhance consumer welfare, and that regulation may not be needed if there is effective competition or if a service is new to a market. Accordingly, the Parties recognise that regulatory needs and approaches differ market by market, and that each Party may determine how to implement its obligations under this Chapter.
2. In this respect, the Parties recognise that a Party may:
(a) engage in direct regulation either in anticipation of an issue that the Party expects may arise or to resolve an issue that has already arisen in the market; or
(b) rely on the role of market forces, particularly with respect to market segments that are, or are likely to be, competitive or that have low barriers to entry, such as services provided by suppliers of telecommunications services that do not own network facilities.
3. For greater certainty, a Party that refrains from engaging in regulation in accordance with this Article remains subject to the obligations under this Chapter.
Article 4 Access and Use (1)
1. Each Party shall ensure that any service supplier of the other Party has access to and use of any public telecommunications networks and services, including leased circuits, offered in its territory or across its borders on a timely basis, and on terms and conditions that are reasonable, non-discriminatory and transparent, inter alia, through paragraphs 2 through 6.
2. Subject to paragraphs 5 and 6, each Party shall ensure that service suppliers of the other Party are permitted to:
(a) purchase or lease and attach terminal or other equipment which interfaces with a public telecommunications network and which is necessary to supply their services;
(b) connect leased or owned circuits with public telecommunications networks and services or with circuits leased or owned by another service supplier; and
(c) use operating protocols of their choice.
3. Each Party shall ensure that service suppliers of the other Party may use public telecommunications networks and services for the movement of information in its territory or across its borders, including for intra-corporate communications of such service suppliers, and for access to information contained in data bases or otherwise stored in machine-readable form in the territory of any Party.
4. Notwithstanding paragraph 3, a Party may take measures that are necessary to ensure the security and confidentiality of messages and to protect the personal information of end users of public telecommunications networks or services, provided that such measures are not applied in a manner which would constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination or a disguised restriction on trade in services.
5. Each Party shall ensure that no condition is imposed on access to and use of public telecommunications networks and services, other than as necessary to:
(a) safeguard the public service responsibilities of suppliers of public telecommunications networks and services, in particular their ability to make their networks or services available to the public generally; or
(b) protect the technical integrity of public telecommunications networks or services.
6. Provided that they satisfy the criteria set out in paragraph 5, conditions for access to and use of public telecommunications networks and services may include:
(a) a requirement to use specified technical interfaces, including interface protocols, for connection with public telecommunications networks and services;
(b) a requirement, where necessary, for the inter-operability of public telecommunications networks and services and to encourage the achievement of the goals set out in Article 17 (Relation to International Organisations);
(c) type approval of terminal or other equipment which interfaces with public telecommunications networks and technical requirements relating to the attachment of such equipment to public telecommunications networks;
(d) a restriction on connection of leased or owned circuits with public telecommunications networks or services or with circuits leased or owned by other service suppliers; or
(e) a requirement for notification and licensing.
Article 5 Number Portability
Each Party shall ensure that a supplier of public telecommunications services in its territory provides number portability for mobile services, to the extent technically and economically feasible, on a timely basis, and on terms and conditions that are reasonable and non-discriminatory.
Article 6 Competitive Safeguards
1. Each Party shall adopt or maintain appropriate measures for the purpose of preventing suppliers who, alone or together, are a major supplier, from engaging in or continuing anti-competitive practices.
2. The anti-competitive practices referred to in paragraph 1 shall include, in particular:
(a) engaging in anti-competitive cross-subsidisation;
(b) using information obtained from competitors with anti-competitive results; and
(c) not making available to other suppliers of public telecommunications networks or services, on a timely basis, technical information about essential facilities and commercially relevant information which are necessary for them to provide services.
Article 7 Treatment by Major Suppliers
Each Party shall ensure that a major supplier in its territory accords to suppliers of public telecommunications networks or services of the other Party treatment no less favourable than that such major supplier accords in like circumstances to its subsidiaries and affiliates, or non-affiliated service suppliers, regarding:
(a) the availability, provisioning, rates or quality of like public telecommunications services; and
(b) the availability of technical interfaces necessary for interconnection.
Article 8 Resale
1. Neither Party shall prohibit the resale of public telecommunications services.
2. Each Party shall ensure that a major supplier in its territory:
(a) offers for resale, at reasonable rates, (2) to suppliers of public telecommunications services of another Party, public telecommunications services that the major supplier provides at retail to end users; and
(b) does not impose unreasonable or discriminatory conditions or limitations on the resale of those services. (3)
3. Each Party may determine, in accordance with its laws and regulations, which public telecommunications services must be offered for resale by a major supplier pursuant to paragraph 2, based on the need to promote competition or to benefit the long-term interests of end users.
4. If a Party does not require that a major supplier offer a specific public telecommunications service for resale, it nonetheless shall allow service suppliers to request that the service be offered for resale consistent with paragraph 2, without prejudice to the Party’s decision on the request.
Article 9 Interconnection (4)
Obligations relating to suppliers of public telecommunications networks or services
1. Each Party shall ensure that a supplier of public telecommunications networks or services in its territory provides interconnection with the suppliers of public telecommunications networks or services of the other Party.
2. Each Party shall ensure that a supplier of public telecommunications networks or services in its territory take reasonable steps to protect the confidentiality of commercially sensitive or confidential information of, or relating to, users acquired as a result of interconnection arrangements and that those suppliers only use that information for the purpose of providing these services.
Obligations relating to major suppliers
3. Each Party shall ensure that a major supplier in its territory provides interconnection for the facilities and equipment of suppliers of public telecommunications networks and services of the other Party at any technically feasible point in the major supplier’s network. Such interconnection shall be provided:
(a) under non-discriminatory terms, conditions (including technical standards and specifications) and rates; (5)
(b) of a quality no less favourable than that provided by the major supplier for its own like services, for like services of non-affiliated service suppliers, or for its subsidiaries or other affiliates;
(c) on a timely basis, and on terms and conditions (including technical standards and specifications) and at cost-oriented rates that are transparent, reasonable, having regard to economic feasibility, and sufficiently unbundled so that the supplier of public telecommunications networks or services of the other Party need not pay for network components or facilities that it does not require for the services to be provided; and
(d) upon request, at points in addition to the network termination points offered to the majority of suppliers of public telecommunications networks and services, subject to charges that reflect the cost of construction of necessary additional facilities.
4. Each Party shall ensure that a major supplier in its territory provides suppliers of public telecommunications services of the other Party with the opportunity to interconnect their facilities and equipment with those of the major supplier through at least one of the following options:
(a) a reference interconnection offer or any other interconnection offer containing the rates, terms and conditions that the major supplier offers generally to suppliers of public telecommunications services;
(b) the terms and conditions of an interconnection agreement that is in effect; or
(c) a new interconnection agreement through commercial negotiation.
5. Each Party shall ensure that the procedures applicable for interconnection to a major supplier are made publicly available.
6. Each Party shall ensure that a major supplier in its territory makes publicly available either its interconnection agreements or reference interconnection offer or any interconnection offer.
Article 10 Provisioning and Pricing of Leased Circuit Services
Each Party shall ensure that a major supplier in its territory provides suppliers of public telecommunications networks or services of the other Party with leased circuit services that are public telecommunications services, on a timely basis, and on terms and conditions and at rates that are reasonable, non-discriminatory and transparent.
Article 11 Co-location
1. Each Party shall ensure that a major supplier which has control over essential facilities in its territory provides suppliers of public telecommunications networks or services of the other Party physical co-location of their equipment necessary for interconnection on a timely basis, and on terms and conditions (including technical feasibility and space availability where applicable) and at rates that are reasonable, non-discriminatory and transparent.
2. Where physical co-location is not practical for technical reasons or because of space limitations, each Party shall endeavour to ensure that a major supplier in its territory provides an alternative solution such as facilitating virtual co-location, based on a generally available offer, on a timely basis, and on terms and conditions and at rates that are reasonable, non-discriminatory and transparent.
3. A Party may determine, in accordance with its laws and regulations, which premises owned or controlled by major suppliers in its territory are subject to paragraphs 1 and 2, having regard to factors such as the state of competition in the market where co-location is required, and whether such premises can feasibly be economically or technically substituted in order to provide a competing service.