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Canada-Jordan Free Trade Agreement

Chapter 15: Exceptions

Article 15-1: General Exceptions

For the purposes of Chapters 2 (National Treatment and Market Access for Goods), 4 (Rules of Origin), 5 (Customs Procedures), 6 (Trade Facilitation) and 8 (Emergency Action), Article XX of GATT 1994 is incorporated into and made part of this Agreement. The Parties understand that the measures referred to in Article XX(b) of GATT 1994 include environmental measures necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or health. The Parties further understand that Article XX(g) of GATT 1994 applies to measures relating to the conservation of living and non-living exhaustible natural resources.

Article 15-2: National Security

Nothing in this Agreement shall be construed:

(a) to require either Party to furnish or allow access to any information the disclosure of which it determines to be contrary to its essential security interests;

(b) to prevent either Party from taking any actions that it considers necessary for the protection of its essential security interests:

(i) relating to the traffic in arms, ammunition and implements of war and to such traffic and transactions in other goods, materials, services and technology undertaken directly or indirectly for the purpose of supplying a military or other security establishment,

(ii) taken in time of war or other emergency in international relations, or

(iii) relating to the implementation of national policies or international agreements respecting the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices; or

(c) to prevent either Party from taking action in pursuance of its obligations under the United Nations Charter for the maintenance of international peace and security.

Article 15-3: Taxation

1. Except as provided in this Article, nothing in this Agreement shall apply to taxation measures.

2. Nothing in this Agreement shall affect the rights and obligations of any Party under any tax convention. In the event of any inconsistency between this Agreement and any such convention, the convention shall prevail to the extent of the inconsistency.

3. Notwithstanding paragraph 2, Article 2-2 and such other provisions of this Agreement as are necessary to give effect to that Article shall apply to taxation measures to the same extent as does Article III of the GATT 1994.

Article 15-4: Disclosure of Information

1. Nothing in this Agreement shall be construed to require a Party to furnish or allow access to information the disclosure of which would impede law enforcement or would be contrary to the Party's law protecting the deliberative and policy-making processes of the executive branch of government at the cabinet level, personal privacy or the financial affairs and accounts of individual customers of financial institutions.

2. Nothing in this Agreement shall be construed to require, during the course of any dispute settlement procedure under this Agreement, a Party to furnish or allow access to information protected under its competition laws, or a competition authority of a Party to furnish or allow access to any other information that is privileged or otherwise protected from disclosure.

Article 15-5: Cultural Industries

Nothing in this Agreement shall be construed to apply to measures adopted or maintained by either Party with respect to cultural industries except as specifically provided in Article 2-3.

Article 15-6: World Trade Organization Waivers

To the extent that there are overlapping rights and obligations in this Agreement and the WTO Agreement, the Parties agree that any measures adopted by a Party in conformity with a waiver decision adopted by the World Trade Organization pursuant to paragraph 3 of Article IX of the WTO Agreement, shall be deemed to be also in conformity with the present Agreement.

Article 15-7: Definitions

For purposes of this Chapter:

(a) competition authority means

(i) For Canada, the Commissioner of Competition or any successor notified in writing to the other Party, and

(ii) For Jordan, the Competition Directorate at the Ministry of Industry and Trade or any successor notified in writing to the other Party.

(b) information protected under its competition laws means

(i) For Canada, information within the scope of section 29 of the Competition Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-34, as amended, and

(ii) For Jordan, information protected under any ofits following laws:

(c) tax convention means a convention for the avoidance of double taxation or other international taxation agreement or arrangement; and

(d) taxes and taxation measures do not include:

(i) a customs duty,

(ii) an antidumping or countervailing duty that is applied pursuant to a Party’s domestic law,

(iii) a fee or other charge in connection with importation commensurate with the cost of services rendered, or

(iv) a premium offered or collected on an imported good arising out of any tendering system in respect of the administration of quantitative import restrictions, tariff rate quotas or tariff preference levels.

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