Article 21 Protection of persons and limits to the obligation to provide assistance

1.

2.

a)

to carry out measures at variance with its own laws or administrative practice or the laws or administrative practice of the applicant State;

b)

to carry out measures which would be contrary to public policy (ordre public);

c)

to supply information which is not obtainable under its own laws or its administrative practice or under the laws of the applicant State or its administrative practice;

d)

to supply information which would disclose any trade, business, industrial, commercial or professional secret, or trade process, or information, the disclosure of which would be contrary to public policy (ordre public);

e)

to provide administrative assistance if and insofar as it considers the taxation in the applicant State to be contrary to generally accepted taxation principles or to the provisions of a convention for the avoidance of double taxation, or of any other convention which the requested State has concluded with the applicant State;

f)

to provide administrative assistance for the purpose of administering or enforcing a provision of the tax law of the applicant State, or any requirement connected therewith, which discriminates against a national of the requested State as compared with a national of the applicant State in the same circumstances;

g)

to provide administrative assistance if the applicant State has not pursued all reasonable measures available under its laws or administrative practice, except where recourse to such measures would give rise to disproportionate difficulty;

h)

to provide assistance in recovery in those cases where the administrative burden for that state is clearly disproportionate to the benefit to be derived by the applicant State.

3.

4.