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ARTICLE 3
General Definitions
(1) For the purposes of this Agreement, unless the context otherwise requires:
- (a) the term "the Federal Republic of Germany" means the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany, as well as the area of the seabed, its subsoil and the superjacent water column adjacent to the territorial sea, insofar as the Federal Republic of Germany exercises there sovereign rights and jurisdiction in conformity with international law and its national legislation for the purpose of exploring, exploiting, conserving and managing the living and non-living natural resources;
- (b) the term "Syrian Arab Republic" means, in accordance with international law, the territories of the Syrian Arab Republic including its internal waters, territorial sea, the subsoil thereof and the airspace above them to which Syria has sovereign rights and other maritime areas to which Syria has the right to exercise sovereign rights for the purpose of exploration, exploitation and conservation of natural resources;
- (c) the terms "a Contracting State" and "the other Contracting State" mean the Federal Republic of Germany or the Syrian Arab Republic as the context requires;
- (d) the term "person" means an individual, a company and any other body of persons;
- (e) the term "company" means any body corporate or any entity that is treated as a body corporate for tax purposes;
- (f) 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 or an enterprise carried on by a resident of the other Contracting State;
- (g) the term "international traffic" means any transport by a ship or aircraft operated by an enterprise that 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;
- (h) the term "national" means:
- (aa) in respect of the Federal Republic of Germany:
- (i) any German within the meaning of the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany and any legal person, partnership and association deriving its status as such from the laws in force in the Federal Republic of Germany;
- (bb) in respect of the Syrian Arab Republic:
- (i) any individual possessing the nationality of the Syrian Arab Republic;
- (ii) any legal person, partnership and association deriving its status as such from the laws in force in the Syrian Arab Republic;
- (aa) in respect of the Federal Republic of Germany:
- (i) the term "competent authority" means:
- (aa) in the case of the Federal Republic of Germany the Federal Ministry of Finance or the agency to which it has delegated its powers;
- (bb) in the case of the Syrian Arab Republic the Minister of Finance or his authorised representatives.
(2) As regards the application of the Agreement at any time by a Contracting State any term not defined therein shall, unless the context otherwise requires, have the meaning that it has at that time under the law of that State for the purposes of the taxes to which the Agreement applies, any meaning under the applicable tax laws of that State prevailing over a meaning given to the term under other laws of that State.