Greece And Turkey To Sign Double Taxation Agreement

by Lorys Charalambous, Tax-News.com, Cyprus

30 October 2003

The abolition of double taxation between Greece and Turkey will remove a major impediment to bilateral trade and boost trading volumes between the countries to around $2 billion over the next two years, according to Ekrem Demirtas, head of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey.

Speaking recently to the Anadolu News Agency, Demirtas said that the Greek Finance Minister was due to visit Istanbul on December 1, when the double taxation agreement will be signed.

"Greece which was earlier unwilling, gave good signals during the Crete summit held last month about preventing double taxation and other issues," announced Demirtas, adding that: "We also took promises from the other side about decreasing the customs taxes and ending quotas. The trade between the two countries will rapidly increase."

Mr Demirtas also noted the desire of Greek banks to give credits to Turkish companies, although they are currently awaiting a satisfactory response from the Turkish Foreign Ministry and Finance Ministry on the matter. However, Demirtas observed that "the attitude of Finance Minister Kemal Unakıtan is positive", continuing: "I believe that this problem will also be sorted out when the agreement on preventing double taxation is made on December 1."

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