Common use of Joint Cooperation Clause in Contracts

Joint Cooperation. 1. The Parties shall strengthen their cooperation in the field of standards, technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures with a view to increasing the mutual understanding of their respective systems and facilitating access to their respective markets. To this end, they may establish regulatory dialogues at both the horizontal and sectoral levels. 2. In their bilateral cooperation, the Parties shall seek to identify, develop and promote trade facilitating initiatives which may include, but are not limited to: (a) reinforcing regulatory cooperation through, for example, the exchange of information, experiences and data and scientific and technical cooperation with a view to improving the quality and level of their technical regulations and making efficient use of regulatory resources; (b) where appropriate, simplifying technical regulations, standards and conformity assessment procedures; (c) where the Parties agree, and where appropriate, for example where no international standard exists, avoiding unnecessary divergence in approach to regulations and conformity assessment procedures, and working towards the possibility of converging or aligning technical requirements; and (d) promoting and encouraging bilateral cooperation between their respective organisations, public or private, responsible for metrology, standardisation, testing, certification and accreditation. 3. On request, a Party shall give due consideration to proposals that the other Party makes for cooperation under the terms of this Chapter.