- 1
- The competent authority of the Requested Party may decline to assist:
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- a)where the request is not made in conformity with this Agreement;
- b)where the Requesting Party has not pursued all means available in its own territory to obtain the information, except where recourse to such means would give rise to disproportionate difficulty; or
- c)where the disclosure of the information requested would be contrary to the public policy (ordre public) of the Requested Party.
- 2
- This Agreement shall not impose on a Contracting Party the obligation to provide information which would disclose any trade, business, industrial, commercial or professional secret or trade process. Notwithstanding the foregoing, information of the type referred to in Article 5, paragraph 4, shall not by reason of that fact alone constitute such a secret or process.
- 3
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- a)The provisions of this Agreement shall not impose on a Contracting Party the obligation to obtain or provide information, which would reveal confidential communications between a client and a legal practitioner or other admitted legal representative where such communications are:
- (i)produced for the purposes of seeking or providing legal advice, or
- (ii)produced for the purposes of use in existing or contemplated legal proceedings.
- b)Information held with the intention of furthering a criminal purpose is not subject to legal privilege, and nothing in this Article shall prevent a legal practitioner or other admitted legal representative from providing the name and address of a client where doing so would not constitute a breach of legal privilege.
- 4
- A request for information shall not be refused on the ground that the tax claim giving rise to the request is disputed.
- 5
- The Requested Party may decline a request for information if the information is requested by the Requesting Party to administer or enforce a provision of the tax law of the Requesting Party, or any requirement connected therewith, which discriminates against a national of the Requested Party as compared with a resident or national of the Requesting Party in the same circumstances.
