Communicated by the Foreign Ministry Spokesman  Jerusalem, November 30, 1999 The Foreign Minister has signed an Agreement to Prevent Dual Taxation between Israel and Spain   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.