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- March 9, 2016
The Tax Information Exchange Agreement between Hong Kong and Sweden entered into force on 16 January 2016.
The agreement generally applies from 1 April 2016 for Hong Kong and from 1 January 2017 for Sweden.
The Agreement was signed on 22 August 2014.
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- March 9, 2016
The Tax Information Exchange Agreement between Hong Kong and Greenland entered into force on 17 February 2016.
The Agreement generally applies from 1 April 2016 in Hong Kong and from 1 January 2017 in Greenland.
The Agreement was signed on 22 August 2014.
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- March 9, 2016
The Tax Information Exchange Agreement between Jersey and Romania entered into force on 5 February 2016.
The agreement generally applies from 5 February 2016 for criminal tax matters and from 1 January 2017 for other tax matters.
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- March 9, 2016
New Zealand’s Trade Minister, Todd McClay, has welcomed the support of the European Parliament to commence negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with New Zealand.
McClay said that the resolution won the support of 479 Members of the European Parliament, 77 percent of the 619 who voted.
“The importance of completing an FTA with the EU cannot be understated,” McClay said. “It has progressively expanded its own FTA network and our exporters have become increasingly disadvantaged – for example, manufactured products face tariffs of up to 39 percent.”
He added that New Zealand’s agricultural exporters face average tariff rates into the EU of 31.3 percent, while competitors from countries like Chile, Singapore, South Africa, Argentina, Vietnam, and Korea enter the EU tariff-free.
“The European Union is the notable missing link in our network of FTAs with our major trading partners and it is a big missing link, with total GDP of more than NZD20 trillion (USD13.25 trillion),” the Trade Minister said. “The EU is also one of New Zealand’s most significant trading partners with current goods and services trade valued at NZD19.6bn.”
The Minister also noted that the EU is New Zealand’s second-largest source and third-largest destination for foreign direct investment and is its largest research and development partner.
“I look forward to the commencement of negotiations and congratulate the European Parliament on this resolution,” he said.
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- March 9, 2016
Lawmakers from the European Free Trade Association met with the European Union Trade Commissioner to discuss the two blocs’ priorities in the area of free trade.
EFTA’s Parliamentary Committee met with Commissioner Cecilia Malmström on February 23, in one of a series of meetings with high-level personnel. They discussed the Commission’s new trade strategy, “Trade for All,” which aims to make the EU’s trade policy more effective at delivering new economic opportunities, and more transparent, in terms of opening up negotiations to more public scrutiny. Instead of focusing on the EU’s interest, trade policies will uphold the EU’s values.
Participants discussed the ongoing negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and investor-to-state dispute settlement, which has been high on the political agenda in Europe lately.
The Committee also met with several Members of the European Parliament, including Viviane Reding MEP, the rapporteur for the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA). Meeting with Christofer Fjellner MEP, members of the Committee learned more about how the European Parliament engages in international trade agreement negotiations.
The EFTA states are Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland.
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