4. PROFESSIONAL SERVICES 

A. Sub-Regional Sectoral Agreements

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1. Convenio sobre el Ejercicio de Profesiones Universitarias y Reconocimiento de Estudios Universitarios (Agreement on the Practice of University Professions and the Recognition of University Studies)

DATE: June 20, 1962

MEMBERS: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua

Summary of Provisions

Definitions:
Article 10: For the purposes of this instrument, the expression “Central American by birth” includes everybody who possesses the juridical quality of being a national by birth in any of the signatary States. Likewise, the expression “Central American by naturalization” refers to the ones, who not being natives of any of the States which subscribe to this Agreement, have been naturalized in any one of these States.

Article 9: To enjoy the benefits of this Agreement, the Central Americans by naturalization must have been residents in a Central American territory for more than five years after the naturalization was obtained.

Objective:
Article 1: The Central American by birth who has obtained, in one of the State Parties to this Agreement, a Professional Title or an equivalent Academic Diploma which legally qualifies this individual to practice an university profession, will be admitted to the practice of such activity in the other countries, whenever the requirements and formalities which are demanded from their university graduate nationals for such activity, by the laws of the State where the profession in question will be practiced, are fulfilled. This provisions will apply as long as the interested individual maintains the nationality of one of the Central American countries.

Article 3: The provisions of the previous articles apply to the Central American by birth who has obtained its university title outside Central America, as long as this person has been incorporated to a Central American University which is legally authorized for it.

Recognition: 
Article 4: The validity of the academic studies approved in the Universities of any of the other States is recognized in each of the States which are Parties to this Agreement.

Transparency:
Article 7: Each of the Central American Universities will regularly inform the others of the professional titles which have been issued or extended, the effected incorporations and the agreed suspensions, indicating, in each case, the nationality of the individuals involved. 

Entry into Force:
Article 11: This Agreement will enter into force as soon as two of the States which ratify this Agreement make the corresponding deposit.

Duration:
Article 12: This Agreement will have an indefinite duration, and may be terminated by any of the contracting States one year after it has formally denounced the Agreement to the others Parties.

Other Provisions:
Article 14: This Agreement will remain open to the State of Panama to join it at any time, at its convenience.

Article 15: The States signing this Agreement concede to end the validation of the Convention on the Practice of Liberal Professions signed in Mexico City, on January 28, 1902; the Convention on the Practice of Liberal Professions signed in Washington, on February 7, 1923; and the Convention on the Practice of Liberal Professions signed in San José de Costa Rica, on September 5, 1942. 

2. Convención de México sobre Ejercicio de Profesiones Liberales (Mexico Convention on the Practice of Liberal Professions)

DATE: Signed on January 28, 1902 Published on July 2, 1909

MEMBERS: Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Peru 

Summary of Provisions

Objective:
This Convention arranges the automatic recognition for the professional practice, in the signatary countries, of any professional title obtained in another signatary Country, once observed the qualifying formalities which this Convention establishes, which are: 

• title authentication; 
• accreditation of the title holder’s identity; 
• registration of title in the country in which the profession will be practiced (Articles IV and V), whenever the law of the country where the profession will be practice does not require citizenship for such practice (Article I); and 
• that the title or diploma is provided by an university or faculty included in the list to which the first paragraph of Article IV refers.

Article I: The certificates of higher level or preparatory studies issued in any of the countries signing to this Convention will produce in all of the other signatary countries the same effects attributed to them by the law of the Republic where they are issued, whenever its does not result in superior advantages to the recognized by the legislation of the country in where the certificates will be used and whenever there is reciprocity.

Article V: The diploma, titles or certificates of preparatory or higher level studies properly authenticated, and the certificate of the person’s identity issued by the respective diplomatic or consular agent, accredited in the Nation which has granted any of those documents, will produce the effects agreed in this Convention, after being registered in the Ministry of Foreign Relations of the country in which the individual wishes to practice the profession.

Reservations: Regarding the Doctor-Surgeon Profession and others related to medical and surgery fields, including the pharmaceutical, the Article III of the Convention establishes a reservation, in the sense that each of the Parties may require that the titles holders for such professions be subjected to a previous general exam on the topics of the profession which accredits the respective title or diploma, as determined by each Government.