Common use of Cooperation Area Clause in Contracts

Cooperation Area. 1. The Parties shall intensify their joint work in the field of technical regulations, standards and conformity assessment procedures with a view to facilitating bilateral trade. The Parties shall, through consultation, seek to identify specific preferential cooperation areas and products, and arrange for cooperative implementation initiatives that are appropriate for trade needs and practical capacity step by step. 2. The Parties shall use international standards, or the relevant parts of international standards, as a basis for their technical regulations and related conformity assessment procedures where relevant international standards exist or their completion is imminent, except when such international standards or their relevant parts are ineffective or inappropriate to fulfill legitimate regulatory objectives. 3. The Parties shall encourage appropriate institutions in their jurisdiction to strengthen their technical cooperation aimed at achieving full and effective compliance with the obligations set forth in the WTO Agreement and with a view to increase the mutual understanding of their respective systems and facilitating access to their respective markets. To this end, they shall encourage their competent authorities in the areas of standards to cooperate in: (i) reinforcing the role of international standards as a basis for technical regulations; (ii) promoting bilateral institutions and regulatory information exchange and technical cooperation; and (iii) promoting bilateral coordination by appropriate agencies in multilateral and international fora on standards. 4. The Parties shall, within the context of this Article, encourage appropriate institutions in their jurisdiction to: (i) exchange information; and (ii) give favourable consideration to any written request for cooperation.