(Communicated by Foreign Ministry Spokesman)
30 November 1999
At a meeting this morning between Foreign Minister David Levy and the
Spanish Ambassador to Israel Fermin Zelada, an agreement was signed
to prevent dual taxation between Israel and Spain.
"This is an important moment in the good and friendly relations
prevailing in any event between Spain and Israel," the Foreign
Minister said.
The Convention for preventing dual taxation is in an acceptable
format including various regulations whose purpose is to avoid dual
taxation both concerning individuals or companies resident in Israel
or Spain.
It does this through increasing taxation rights in either country or
both, or by requiring one of the countries to grant a concession
regarding taxes paid in the second country.
The convention's clauses relate to all types of economic activity,
such as revenues from imports to exports. In addition, it includes
regulations for preventing discrimination by residents of one country
against those of the second, regulations enabling the transfer of
information between the tax authorities, and a clause providing an
infrastructure for cooperation between the two countries in the field
of taxation.
The convention will ease conditions for Israeli companies interested
in participating in the Spanish market and for Spanish companies
wanting to operate in Israel, and will encourage joint activity and
joint business ventures of companies and individuals in both
countries.
The negotiations for the convention started in 1991. The agreement
was initialled in September 1998. It will join a number of agreements
in the economic field between the two countries: the agreement for
cooperation in industrial research and development [whose
ratification is in the process of being completed] and agreements
between the industrial associations and the export institutes.
In 1998, mutual trade bewtween Israel and Spain exceeded $1-billion,
representing four percent of the total Israeli trade with the
European Union. Exports reached $391-million and imports totalled
$623-million. In the first nine months of 1999, exports went up by 12
percent relative to 1998, and imports dropped by eight percent.
It is to be expected that the agreement signed today will cause an
increase in the scope of trade between the two countries.