[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 7030-7031]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




      REMOVAL OF INJUNCTION OF SECRECY--TREATY DOCUMENT NO. 113-4

  Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, as in executive session, I ask unanimous 
consent that the injunction of secrecy be

[[Page 7031]]

removed from the following treaty transmitted to the Senate on May 7, 
2014, by the President of the United States: the Protocol Amending the 
Tax Convention with Spain, treaty document No. 113-4.
  I further ask that the treaty be considered as having been read for 
the first time; that it be referred, with accompanying papers, to the 
Committee on Foreign Relations and ordered to be printed; and that the 
President's message be printed in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The message of the President is as follows:
To the Senate of the United States:
  I transmit herewith, for the advice and consent of the Senate to its 
ratification, the Protocol Amending the Convention between the United 
States of America and the Kingdom of Spain for the Avoidance of Double 
Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with Respect to Taxes on 
Income and its Protocol, signed at Madrid on February 22, 1990, and a 
related Memorandum of Understanding signed on January 14, 2013, at 
Madrid, together with correcting notes dated July 23, 2013, and January 
31, 2014 (together the ``proposed protocol''). I also transmit for the 
information of the Senate the report of the Department of State, which 
includes an overview of the proposed protocol.
  The proposed protocol was negotiated to bring United States-Spain tax 
treaty relations into closer conformity with U.S. tax treaty policy. 
The proposed protocol exempts from source-country withholding cross-
border payments of certain direct dividends, interest, royalties, and 
capital gains, and updates the provisions of the existing convention 
with respect to preventing abuse by third-country investors and the 
exchanges of information between revenue authorities. The proposed 
protocol also updates the mutual agreement procedure by requiring 
binding arbitration of certain cases that the competent authorities of 
the United States and Spain have been unable to resolve after a 
reasonable period of time.
  I recommend the Senate give early and favorable consideration to the 
proposed protocol and give its advice and consent to its ratification.
                                                        Barack Obama.  
The White House, May 7, 2014.

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