Article 3 General definitions

1.

a)

the term ‘Contracting State’ means Brazil or the Netherlands, as the context requires; the term ‘Contracting States’ means Brazil and the Netherlands;

b)

the term ‘Brazil’ means the continental and insular territory of the Federative Republic of Brazil, including its territorial sea, as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and the corresponding sea bed and sub-soil, as well as any maritime area beyond the territorial sea, including the sea bed and the sub-soil to the extent that in that area Brazil in accordance with international law exercises rights with respect to the exploration and exploitation of the natural resources.

c)

the term ‘the Netherlands’ means the part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands that is situated in Europe including the part of the sea bed and its sub-soil under the North Sea, to the extent that that area in accordance with international law has been or may hereafter be designated under Netherlands laws as an area within which the Netherlands may exercise certain rights with respect to the exploration and exploitation of the natural resources of the sea bed or its sub-soil;

d)

the term ‘nationals’ means:

1.

all individuals possessing the nationality of a Contracting State;

2.

all legal persons, partnerships and associations deriving their status as such from the laws in force in a Contracting State;

e)

the term ‘person’ includes an individual, a company and any other body of persons;

f)

the term ‘company’ means any body corporate or any entity which is treated as a body corporate for tax purposes;

g)

the terms ‘enterprise of a Contracting State’ and ‘enterprise of the other Contracting State’ mean respectively an enterprise carried on by a resident of a Contracting State and an enterprise carried on by a resident of the other Contracting State;

h)

the term ‘international traffic’ means any transport by a ship or aircraft operated by an enterprise which has its place of effective management in a Contracting State, except when the ship or aircraft is operated solely between places in the other Contracting State;

i)

the term ‘tax’ means Brazilian tax or Netherlands tax, as the context requires;

j)

the term ‘competent authority’ means:

1.

in Brazil: the Minister of Finance, the Secretary of Federal Revenue or their authorized representatives;

2.

in the Netherlands: the Minister of Finance or his duly authorized representative.

2.