1. Each Party shall ensure that all measures of general application affecting cross-border trade in services are administered in a reasonable, objective and impartial manner.
2. Each Party shall maintain or institute as soon as practicable judicial, arbitral or administrative tribunals or procedures which provide, at the request of an affected service supplier, for the prompt review of and, where justified, appropriate remedies for, administrative decisions affecting cross-border trade in services. Where such procedures are not independent of the agency entrusted with the administrative decision concerned, the Party shall ensure that the procedures in fact provide for an objective and impartial review.
3. With a view to ensuring that measures relating to qualification requirements and procedures, technical standards, and licensing requirements and procedures do not constitute unnecessary barriers to cross-border trade in services, each Party shall ensure that any such measures that it adopts or maintains:
(a) are based on objective and
transparent criteria, such as competence and the ability to supply the service;
(b) are not more burdensome than necessary to ensure the quality of the service; and
(c) in the case of licensing and qualification procedures, do not in themselves constitute a restriction on the supply of the service.
4. In determining whether a Party is in conformity with its obligations under paragraph 3, account shall be taken of international standards of relevant international organisations applied by that Party.
5. Where authorisation is required for the supply of a service, each Party shall ensure that its competent authorities:
(a) in the case of an incomplete application, at the request of the applicant, identify all the additional information that is required to complete the application and provide the opportunity to remedy deficiencies within a reasonable timeframe;
(b) within a reasonable period of time after the submission of an application considered complete under domestic law, inform the applicant of the decision concerning the application;
(c) to the extent practicable, establish an indicative timeframe for processing of an application;
(d) at the request of the applicant, provide, without undue delay, information concerning the status of the application;
and
(e) if an application is rejected or denied, to the maximum extent possible, inform the applicant in writing and without undue delay the reasons for such action. The applicant will have the possibility of resubmitting, at its discretion, a new application.
6. Each Party shall ensure its competent authorities, where appropriate, accept copies of documents authenticated in accordance with domestic law, in place of original documents.
7. If licensing or qualification requirements include the completion of any examination, each Party shall ensure that:
(a) the examination is scheduled at reasonably frequent intervals;
(b) a reasonable period of time is provided to enable interested persons to submit an application.
8. Each Party shall ensure that any licensing fees12 and qualification fees charged by the competent authority for the completion of relevant application procedures are reasonable, transparent and commensurate with the administrative costs incurred by the authority, including those for activities related to regulation and supervision of the relevant service.
9. Each Party shall provide for adequate procedures to verify the competence of professionals of the other Party.
10. The obligations in paragraphs 5 to 8 shall not apply to measures to the extent that they are subject to scheduling under Articles 4 (Market Access) and 5 (National Treatment) in the Party’s schedules to Annex 4:I and 4:II.
11. If the results of the negotiations related to Article VI(4) of GATS (or the results of any similar negotiations undertaken in other multilateral fora in which the Parties participate) enter into effect, the Parties shall jointly review such results. Where the joint review assesses that the incorporation of such results into this Agreement would improve or strengthen the disciplines contained herein, the Parties shall jointly determine whether to incorporate such results into this Agreement.
12 Licensing fees do not include payments for the use of natural resources, payments for auction, tendering or other non-discriminatory means of awarding concessions, or mandated contributions to universal service provision.
160 Article 13 Recognition
1. For the purposes of the fulfilment, in whole or in part, of its standards or criteria for the authorisation, licensing or certification of service suppliers, and subject to the requirements of paragraph 4, a Party may recognise the education or experience obtained, requirements met, or licences or certification granted in the other Party.
2. Where a Party recognises, autonomously or by agreement or arrangement, the education or experience obtained, requirements met or licences or certification granted in a non-Party, nothing in Article 6 (Most-Favoured-Nation Treatment) shall be construed to require the Party to accord such recognition to the education or experience obtained, requirements met, or licences or certifications granted in the other Party.
3. A Party that is a party to an agreement or arrangement of the type referred to in paragraph 2, whether existing or future, shall afford adequate opportunity for the other Party, upon request, to negotiate its accession to such an agreement or arrangement or to negotiate a comparable one with it. Where a Party accords recognition autonomously, it shall afford adequate opportunity for the other Party to demonstrate that education or experience obtained, requirements met, or licences or certifications granted in that other Party should be recognised.
4. A Party shall not accord recognition in a manner which would constitute a means of discrimination between countries in the application of its standards or criteria for the authorisation, licensing or certification of
service suppliers, or a disguised restriction on cross-border trade in services.
5. Where appropriate, the Parties agree to facilitate the establishment of dialogue between the relevant experts, regulators and/or industry bodies to share and maintain qualifications recognition processes with a view to encourage the achievement of recognition of qualifications and/or professional registration.
6. Such recognition may be achieved through harmonisation, recognition of regulatory outcomes, recognition of qualifications and professional registration awarded by one Party as a means of complying with the regulatory requirements of the other Party (whether accorded autonomously or by mutual arrangement) or recognition arrangements concluded between the Parties and between industry bodies.
Article 14