The Diplomat
The Council of Ministers yesterday approved a Royal Decree creating a Finance Council based in Beijing and abolishing the Spanish Finance Councils in Argentina and Mexico.
The creation of the Council in Beijing is part of a plan to restructure the Network of Finance Councils abroad in order to strengthen Spain’s presence in the Asian continent. “The aim is to adapt the network of Finance Councils abroad to the international context, to the geographical distribution of the commercial and investment flow of Spanish companies and to the needs of the Public Treasury,” said the Government. China constitutes Spain’s third largest supplier (it accounted for 9.1% of total Spanish imports in 2019) and the fourth largest destination for Spanish exports outside the European Union. “With the creation of this Counseling Office, the development of joint projects, the promotion of the necessary cooperation and mutual assistance in general, in terms of tax matters, is facilitated,” the Executive added.
At the same time, and “as part of a process of expenditure optimization”, the Spanish Finance Councils in Argentina and Mexico, two countries with which “the Ministry of Finance and Public Function will continue to maintain, as it has done until now, fruitful bilateral relations, in addition to those that take place within the international forums of which all these countries are part”, have been abolished.
The Finance Councils abroad are bodies dependent on the Ministry of Finance and integrated in the diplomatic representations or permanent representations to international organizations. Excluding those of Argentina and Mexico and not yet including that of China, Spain currently has seven Finance Councils: Permanent Representation to the European Union (Brussels), Embassy in the United States, Permanent Representation to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OSCE, in Paris), Representation to the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT, Panama), Permanent Representation to the Office of the United Nations and International Organizations (Geneva), Embassy in the United Kingdom and Embassy in Brazil.
