Committee on Foreign Relations and National Defense approved, last Wednesday (16), an agreement between Brazil and Philippines that allows remunerated professional activity by diplomatic, consular, administrative and technical staff’s dependents. The agreement, firmed on June, 2009, appears at the Executive Branch’s Message 873/09.

The text has considered dependents as spouses; under-21 single children; under-25 single children, who are studying at Universities or superior education center recognized by each one of the countries; and single children with physical or mental disabilities.

“The current agreement, similarly to those of signed up with more than 40 countries during the last two decades, has reflected the present tendency to extend to diplomatic mission agents’ dependents the opportunity to work abroad, allowing them to enrich their professional experience”, the Executive message says. The Rapporteur, Deputy William Woo, was favorable to the proposal.

The agreement will run for five years, and will be automatically prorogated for equal period, unless one part notifies the other with its wish of suspending or finishing it.

Authorization
According to the proposal, authorization request for exerting a remunerated activity shall be sent, in behalf of the dependent, by the Embassy to the Philippine Department of Foreign Relations or to the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Relations. At the request, the dependent’s intended job should be written. The authorization should not exempt the applicant from any kind of required qualification for the intended activity. It can be denied if the intended activity is privative to the Country citizens.

The agreement still establishes that the dependent will not be able to exert any kind of remunerated activity different from that of allowed by the authorization. Besides, it shall be finished as soon as the beneficiary loses their dependent condition, or at the mission ending.

Rules
According to the text, the agreement does not imply into the automatic certificate or title recognition, obtained abroad. “Such recognition will only be able to occur in accordance with the rules in force which regulate those issues at the accredited Country territory”, the text says. The dependents that exert remunerated activity will be subject to the Labor Laws, the Social Security and the Pension Tax of the Country where they are living.

The proposal will be analyzed by other committees before going to the Floor.

Translation - Grupo Solucion-SP Language/Márcia Regina Monteiro Ferreira