Provisions on Trade in Services in Trade and Integration Agreements in the Western Hemisphere

Each Member 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 trade in services.

With a view to ensuring that measures relating to qualification requirements and procedures, technical standards and licensing requirements do not constitute unnecessary barriers to trade in services, the Council for Trade in Services shall, through appropriate bodies it may establish, develop any necessary disciplines. Such disciplines shall aim to ensure that such requirements are, inter alia:
(a) based on objective and transparent criteria, such as competence and the ability to supply the service;
(b) not more burdensome than necessary to ensure the quality of the service;
(c) in the case of licensing procedures, not in themselves a restriction on the supply of the service.

NAFTA
Chapter Twelve, Article 1210: Licensing and Certification
With a view to ensuring that any measure adopted or maintained by a Party related to the licensing or certification of nationals of another Party does not constitute an unnecessary barrier to trade, each Party shall endeavor to ensure that any such measure:
(a) is based on objective and transparent criteria, such as competence and the ability to provide a service;
(b) is not more burdensome than necessary to ensure the quality of a service; and
(c) does not constitute a disguised restriction on the cross-border provision of a service.

Group of Three
Chapter X, Article 10-14: Licensing and Certification
With a view to ensuring that any measure adopted or maintained by a Party related to the licensing or certification of nationals of another Party does not constitute an unnecessary barrier to trade, each Party shall endeavor to ensure that any such measure:
(a) is based on objective and transparent criteria, such as competence and the ability to provide a service;
(b) is not more burdensome than necessary to ensure the quality of a service; and
(c) does not constitute a disguised restriction on the cross-border provision of a service.

CACM
Not Specified.

CARICOM
Not Specified.

Andean Community
Chapter IV. Article 12
The Member Countries shall facilitate the free transit and the temporary presence of the natural and physical persons, such as employees of the service provider companies of other Member Countries, in accordance with activities specified in the scope of this General Framework in conformity with what was agreed by the Abndean Council of Ministers of Foreign Relations on this subject.

Central America/Dominican Republic
Chapter X, Article 10-07: National Regulation
With a view to ensuring that all measures adopted or maintained by a Party with respect to the requests and procedures for licenses or certification to the nationals of the other Party do not constitute an unnecessary barrier to trade, each Party shall endeavor to ensure that any such measure:
(a) is sustained in objective and transparent criteria, such as capacity, aptitude, and competence to provide a service;
(b) is not more burdensome than necessary to ensure the quality of a service; and
(c) does not constitute a disguised restriction on the provision of a service.

Mercosur
Part II, Article X: National Regulations
Each Party shall ensure that all measures of general application affecting trade in services are administered in a reasonable, objective, and impartial way.

Each Party shall maintain or institute judicial, arbitral, or administrative tribunals or procedures which provide, at the request of an affected service supplier, for the prompt review of administrative decisions affecting trade in services, and, where justified, for application of appropriate remedies. When such procedures are not independent of the body that took the administrative decision, the State Party shall make sure that they allow de facto on objective and impartial revision.

The provisions of this paragraph shall not be interpreted so as to impose to any of the State Party the obligation to establish such tribunals or procedures when this would be incompatible with its constitutional structure or the nature of its juridical system.

When a license, a matriculation, certificate or other type of authorization is required to supply a service, the competent authorities of the State Party in question, in a prudential time-limit as of the presentation of the request:
(a) when the request is complete, they shall make a decision and inform the interested person; or
(b) when the request is not complete, they shall inform the interested person without unnecessary delay on the status of the request, and on all the additional information required pursuant to the law of the State Party.

With a view to ensuring that measures relating to technical standards, qualification requirements and procedures, and licensing requirements do not constitute unnecessary barriers to trade in services, Parties shall ensure that such requirements and procedures, inter alia:
(a) are based on objective and transparent criteria, such as competence and the ability to provide a service;
(b) are not more burdensome than necessary to ensure the quality of a service; and
(c) in the case of licensing procedures, do not constitute a restriction on the provision of the service.

Each State Party can set up the adequate procedures to verify the competence of the professionals of other State Parties.

Bolivia/Mercosur
Not Specified.

Chile/Mercosur
Not Specified.