1. The Community and its Member States shall grant, for the establishment of Tajik companies as defined in Article 22(d), treatment no less favourable than that accorded to any third country companies.
2. Without prejudice to the reservations listed in Annex II, the Community and its Member States shall grant subsidiaries of Tajik companies established in their territories treatment no less favourable than that granted to any Community companies, in respect of their operation.
3. The Community and its Member States shall grant branches of Tajik companies established in their territories treatment no less favourable than that accorded to branches of companies of any third country, in respect of their operation.
4. The Republic of Tajikistan shall grant, for the establishment of Community companies as defined in Article 22(d), treatment no less favourable than that accorded to Tajik companies or to any third country companies, whichever is the better.
5. The Republic of Tajikistan shall grant subsidiaries and branches of Community companies established in its territory treatment no less favourable than that accorded to Tajik companies or branches, or to any third country company or branch, whichever is the better, in respect of their operations.
1. The provisions of Article 20 shall not apply to air transport, inland waterways transport and maritime transport.
2. However, in respect of activities undertaken by shipping agencies for the provision of international maritime transport services, including intermodal activities involving a sea leg, each Party shall permit the companies of the other Party to have a commercial presence in its territory in the form of subsidiaries or branches, under conditions of establishment and operation no less favourable than those accorded to its own companies or to subsidiaries or branches of companies of any third country, whichever are better.
Such activities include but are not limited to:
(a)
the marketing and sale of maritime transport and related services through direct contact with customers, from quotation to invoicing, whether these services are operated or offered by the service supplier itself or by service suppliers with which the service seller has established standing business arrangements;
(b)
the purchase and use, on their own account or on behalf of their customers (and the resale to their customers), of any transport and related services, including inward transport services by any mode, particularly inland waterways, road and rail, necessary for the supply of an integrated service;
(c)
the preparation of transport documents, customs documents, or other documents related to the origin and character of the goods transported;
(d)
the provision of business information by any means, including computerised information systems and electronic data interchange (subject to any non-discriminatory restrictions concerning electronic communications);
(e)
the setting-up of any business arrangement, including participation in the company’s stock and the appointment of personnel recruited locally (or, in the case of foreign personnel, subject to the relevant provisions of this Agreement), with any locally established shipping agency;
(f)
acting on behalf of companies, organising the port of call of the ship or taking over cargoes when required.
For the purpose of this Agreement:
(a)
A ‘Community company’ or a ‘Tajik company’ respectively shall mean a company set up in accordance with the laws of a Member State or of the Republic of Tajikistan respectively and having its registered office, central administration or principal place of business in the territory of the Community or of the Republic of Tajikistan respectively. However, should a company set up in accordance with the laws of a Member State or the Republic of Tajikistan respectively have only its registered office in the territory of the Community or of the Republic of Tajikistan respectively, the company shall be considered a Community or Tajik company respectively if its operations possess a real and continuous link with the economy of one of the Member States or the Republic of Tajikistan respectively.
(b)
‘Subsidiary’ of a company shall mean a company which is effectively controlled by the first company.
(c)
‘Branch’ of a company shall mean a place of business not having legal personality which has the appearance of permanency, such as the extension of a parent body, has a management and is materially equipped to negotiate business with third parties so that the latter, although knowing that there will if necessary be a legal link with the parent body, the head office of which is abroad, do not have to deal directly with such parent body but may transact business at the place of business constituting the extension.
(d)
‘Establishment’ shall mean the right of Community or Tajik companies as referred to in point (a) to take up economic activities by means of the setting up of subsidiaries and branches in the Republic of Tajikistan or in the Community respectively.
(e)
‘Operation’ shall mean the pursuit of economic activities.
(f)
‘Economic activities’ shall mean activities of an industrial, commercial and professional character.
With regard to international maritime transport, including intermodal operations involving a sea leg, nationals of the Member States or of the Republic of Tajikistan established outside the Community or the Republic of Tajikistan respectively, and shipping companies established outside the Community or the Republic of Tajikistan and controlled by nationals of a Member State or nationals of the Republic of Tajikistan respectively, shall also be beneficiaries of the provisions of this Chapter and Chapter III if their vessels are registered in that Member State or in the Republic of Tajikistan respectively in accordance with their respective legislation.
1. Notwithstanding any other provisions of this Agreement, a Party shall not be prevented from taking measures for prudential reasons, including for the protection of investors, depositors, policy holders or persons to whom a fiduciary duty is owed by a financial service supplier, or to ensure the integrity and stability of the financial system. Where such measures do not conform with the provisions of this Agreement, they shall not be used as a means of avoiding the obligations of a Party under this Agreement.
2. Nothing in this Agreement shall be construed as requiring a Party to disclose information relating to the affairs and accounts of individual customers or any confidential or proprietary information in the possession of public entities.
3. For the purposes of this Agreement, ‘financial services’ shall mean those activities described in Annex III.
The provisions of this Agreement shall not prejudice the application by each Party of any measure necessary to prevent the circumvention of its measures concerning third country access to its market, through the provisions of this Agreement.
1. Notwithstanding the provisions of Chapter I of this Title, a Community company or a Tajik company established in the territory of the Republic of Tajikistan or the Community respectively shall be entitled to employ, or have employed by one of its subsidiaries or branches, in accordance with the legislation in force in the host country of establishment, in the territory of the Republic of Tajikistan and the Community respectively, employees who are nationals of Community Member States and the Republic of Tajikistan respectively, provided that such employees are key personnel as defined in paragraph 2, and that they are employed exclusively by companies, or branches. The residence and work permits of such employees shall only cover the period of such employment.
2. Key personnel of the abovementioned companies herein referred to as ‘organisations’ are ‘intra-corporate transferees’ as defined in (c) in the following categories, provided that the organisation is a legal person and that the persons concerned have been employed by it or have been partners in it (other than majority shareholders) for at least the year immediately preceding such movement:
(a)
Persons working in a senior position with an organisation, who primarily direct the management of the establishment, receiving general supervision or direction principally from the board of directors or stockholders of the business or their equivalent, including:
—
directing the establishment or a department or subdivision of the establishment,
—
supervising and controlling the work of other supervisory, professional or managerial employees,
—
having the authority personally to hire and fire or recommend hiring, firing or other personnel actions.
(b)
Persons working within an organisation who possess uncommon knowledge essential to the establishment’s service, research equipment, techniques or management. The assessment of such knowledge may reflect, apart from knowledge specific to the establishment, a high level of qualification referring to a type of work or trade requiring specific technical knowledge, including membership of an accredited profession.
(c)
An ‘intra-corporate transferee’ is defined as a natural person working within an organisation in the territory of a Party, and being temporarily transferred in the context of pursuit of economic activities in the territory of the other Party; the organisation concerned must have its principal place of business in the territory of a Party and the transfer be to a branch or a subsidiary of that organisation effectively pursuing like economic activities in the territory of the other Party.
1. The Parties shall use their best endeavours to avoid taking any measures or actions which render the conditions for the establishment and operation of each other’s companies more restrictive than the situation existing on the day preceding the date of signature of the Agreement.
2. The provisions of this Article are without prejudice to those of Article 34: the situations covered by Article 34 shall be governed exclusively by the provisions thereof.
3. Acting in the spirit of partnership and cooperation and in the light of the provisions of Article 40, the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan shall inform the Community of its intentions to submit new legislation or adopt new regulations which may render the conditions for the establishment or operation in the Republic of Tajikistan of subsidiaries and branches of Community companies more restrictive than the situation existing on the day preceding the date of signature of the Agreement. The Community may request the Republic of Tajikistan to communicate the drafts of such legislation or regulations and to enter into consultations about those drafts.
4. Where new legislation or regulations introduced in the Republic of Tajikistan would result in rendering the conditions for operation of subsidiaries and branches of Community companies established in the Republic of Tajikistan more restrictive than the situation existing on the day of signature of this Agreement, such legislation or regulations shall not apply during three years following the entry into force of the relevant act to those subsidiaries and branches already established in the Republic of Tajikistan at the time of entry into force of the relevant act.
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
