. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/REG269/2 
20 September 2010 
 (10-4706) 
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements Original:   English 
  
 
FREE TRADE AGREEMENT BETWEEN PERU AND SINGAPORE 
 
Questions and Replies
 
  
 The following communication, dated 16 September 2010, is being circulated at the request of 
the delegations of Peru and Singapore.   This document reproduces the questions addressed to the Parties and the responses submitted.  
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  Questions from the Delegation of Japan
 
 1. The FTA between Peru and Singapore stipulates Market Access (Article 11.5) as well as 
Local Presence (Article 11.6) at the same time. The Article 11.5 prohibits to restrict or to 
require "specific types" of legal entity or joint venture in line with GATS Article XVI.  On the 
other hand, the Article 11.6 has a similar provision  that prohibits requiring a service supplier of 
the other Party to establish or maintain "any form of enterprise".  Please provide explanation 
on the scope, difference and interpretation of these two provisions. 
 The Market Access and Local Presence provisions should be interpreted as being 
complementary to one another, ensuring that cro ss-border trade in services is not inhibited by 
requirements for domestic presence and specific form s of legal entity, subject only to listed and 
clearly-described reservations.  
2. Annex 11A stipulates development of mutua lly acceptable standards and criteria for 
licensing and certification of professional services suppliers, as well as for the mutual 
recognition of professional degrees. Please explain the current status of development of standards and criteria, or mutual recognition of specific professional services so far, if any. 
 The Parties have yet to commence discussions  on either the development of standards and 
criteria for licensing and certification of professional service suppliers or the mutual recognition of 
specific professional services under the Peru-S ingapore Free Trade Agreement (PeSFTA). 
 
Questions from the Delegation of the United States
 
 
3. Paragraph 99 of the Factual Presentation notes that, pursuant to Article 10.2 of the 
Agreement, the obligations of Chapter 10 do not apply to taxation measures, unless otherwise 
provided;  government procurement;  and serv ices supplied in the exercise of governmental 
authority within the territory of the respective Party. 
 WT/REG269/2 
Page 2  
 
  (a) Paragraph 141 of the Factual Presentation notes that Article 18.3 of the 
Agreement's Exceptions chapter "exempts taxation measures from the Agreement's coverage".  In light of th is general Article 18.3 exception, why did 
Parties feel the need to include a speci fic exception for taxation measures in 
Article 10.2?  
 Although Article 18.3 excludes taxation meas ures from the scope and coverage of the 
Agreement, except as specifically set out, the incl usion of the exception in Article 10.2 of the 
Investment Chapter obeys the need of facilitating its reading for the common users (exporters and 
investors), who may not go through in detail all ch apters of the Agreement but focus instead on 
particular chapters that appear at first sight to be most relevant to them.   
 
(b) Could the Parties please explain their rationale for excluding procurement and 
"services supplied in the exercise of governmental authority" entirely from the scope of Chapter 10, as opposed to excluding them only from certain of the Chapter's obligations, as is the case, for example, with subsidies and grants 
(which, pursuant to Article 10.14(4), are excluded only from application of the 
Chapter’s national treatment, MFN, and senior management obligations)?  
 The exclusion of government procurement fro m the scope of Chapter 10 is a negotiated 
outcome that both parties agreed on at the time of  the negotiations.  The Agreement has a specific 
chapter on government procurement.  The exclus ion of "services supplied in the exercise of 
governmental authority" from the scope of Chapter 10 is consistent with th e WTO General Agreement 
on Trade in Services. 
 
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