22-01-99 Venezuela was to sign a treaty on Jan. 25, 1999 with the United States to eliminate the double-levying of taxation on resident companies operating in the other country, a spokesman for the U.S. embassy confirmed.
At present, U.S. or Venezuelan companies doing business in the other country must pay taxes in both. This acts as a barrier to many U.S. companies considering investing in Latin America's largest oil exporting economy.
The taxation treaty, which was initialled in August, will be officially signed in Caracas by U.S. Ambassador John Maisto and Venezuela's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Burelli.
The prompt signing will precede the visit of Venezuela's President-elect Hugo Chavez to Washington to meet with President Bill Clinton January 27. Chavez takes office Feb. 2.
Venezuela would be the first nation in the Western Hemisphere outside of the North American Free Trade Agreement to have such a treaty.

The move was praised as "extremely important" by Robert Bottome of respected local research firm VenEconomy. He said Venezuela stands to gain most from the treaty as its direct investment in America far outweighs U.S. investment in the Latin American country.
"It will also allow at last Citgo (the U.S. retail arm of state oil company PDVSA) to pay a dividend to the Venezuelan government," said Bottome.
PDVSA is one of the largest foreign investors in the U.S. through its large Citgo subsidiary. Industry experts say the level of taxation payable by PDVSA on profits its wishes to expatriate should fall to around 5 %, once the withholding tax of 35 % is eliminated by the treaty.