FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Today Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill signed a new agreement with the Kingdom of the Netherlands that will allow for exchange of information on tax matters between the United States and the Netherlands Antilles. The agreement was signed by Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and the Prime Minister of the Netherlands Antilles, Miguel Pourier.

At the signing ceremony, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill delivered the following remarks:

I would like to thank you all for being here today and welcome our friends from the Kingdom of the Netherlands, particularly Prime Minister Pourier of the Netherlands Antilles.

The United States and the Netherlands Antilles have for many years had a close and cooperative relationship on law enforcement matters. We greatly value this cooperation, particularly now as we work to ensure that no safe haven exists anywhere in the world for the funds associated with illicit activities, including terrorism, money laundering, and tax evasion.

I have spoken on numerous occasions about our obligation to enforce our tax laws, because failing to do so undermines the confidence of honest taxpayers in the fairness of our tax system. Access to needed information is vital to our efforts to ensure enforcement of our laws.

The tax information exchange agreement we are signing today exemplifies our close and long-standing relationship with the Netherlands Antilles. When we last modified our tax treaty relationship in 1996, we made a formal commitment to continue discussing issues of double taxation arising between our two countries and, if necessary to avoid double taxation, to enter into tax treaty negotiations. We will proceed within 12 months with that treaty dialogue to consider the recent changes to the Netherlands Antilles tax law.

This new tax information exchange agreement is an important development. I want to thank Prime Minister Pourier for his participation in this signing ceremony and for demonstrating that the Netherlands Antilles and the United States share a common goal of upholding international standards and ensuring that our financial institutions are not used to further illicit activities of any kind.

As many of you know, several months ago I made a public commitment, in Congressional testimony, to expanding our network of tax information exchange relationships. The agreement we are signing today, together with our recent agreements with the Cayman Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, and the British Virgin Islands, demonstrates the depth of our commitment. We will continue to work vigorously to improve our tax information exchange relationships, and I look forward to gathering here again in the coming weeks to announce additional agreements with other countries.

The text of the Agreement