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Although a simple activity, foreign residents may encounter several difficulties when leasing property in Mexico. Rules are not always clear and may not integrate all direct and indirect taxes in a comprehensible manner. This article summarizes some of the main considerations.

US importers have traditionally met with little success when challenging unfavourable rulings by the US Customs authorities. The decision in Mead represents an important challenge to this state of affairs. By Damon Pike and Giovanni DiCenso, of Deloitte & Touche, Atlanta and Washington DC

For the past two years, the results of International Tax Review's Latin America survey have yielded few surprises, with little movement in the ranking of firms. However, as this year's results show, the dynamics could be changing. Find out why. By Sharon Cunningham

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom has become the latest US firm to set up a UK tax practice by hiring a partner from fellow US firm McDermott, Will & Emery.

DATE TYPE OF DEAL VALUE ACQUIRER TARGET HOLDER ADVISERS TO TARGET ADVISERS TO ACQUIRER ADVISERS TO HOLDER 18/11/01 merger $35 billion Phillips Petroleum Co Conoco Inc n/a Cravath, Swaine & Moore, New York, Lew Steinberg Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, New York, Deborah Paul n/a 19/11/01 notes offering $1.25 billion Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank n/a lead managers Morgan Stanley & Co; Schroder Salomon Smith Barney; BNP Paribas n/a Sullivan & Cromwell, New York Eliyahu Jacobson, Shlomo Cohen Davis Polk & Wardwell, London Lydia Kess, Angelica Kwan; Hengeler Mueller, Frankfurt, Martin Klein 19/11/01 acquisition £1.3 billion ($1.86 billion) London Electricity Eastern Electricity, 24Seven TXU Europe Ltd n/a Denton Wilde Sapte, London Charlotte Sallabank Norton Rose, London Christopher Norfolk, Emma Fotheringham 20/11/01 merger $6 billion Royal Caribbean Cruises P&O Princess Cruises n/a n/a n/a Slaughter and May, London Stephen Edge, Lee Whittle; Davis Polk & Wardwell, London, Lydia Kess, Rob Heller; KPMG, London, Chris Morgan n/a 20/11/01 acquisition $1.6 billion Johnson Wax Professional DiverseyLever Unilever plc Slaughter and May, London, Tony Beare, Gillian Wheeler; Cravath, Swaine & Moore Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, London, Keith Featherstone n/a 23/11/01 outsourcing deal £2.38 billion ($3.41 billion) Telereal (joint venture, Land Securities Trillium; Pears Group) BT n/a Ashurst Morris Crisp, London, Susan Crawford; Andersen, London, Andrew Rothery, Lisa McKibben Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, London, Michael Thompson, Peter Cosmetatos, Tim Crosley n/a 27/11/01 privatization $900 million France Telecom 12.5% of Telekomunikacja Polska Polish Treasury in-house, Claire Beziau Baker & McKenzie, Warsaw, Slawomir Boruc n/a 29/11/01 acquisition $537 million South African Breweries plc 97.5% of Cerveceria Hondurena Dole Food Company n/a Dewey Ballantine, London, Fred Gander, Javier Gonzales O'Melveny & Myers, Los Angeles, Robert Blashek 30/11/01 notes offering $1.5 billion Instituto de Credito Oficial (ICO) n/a lead managers; Credit Suisse First Boston; Schroder Salomon Smith Barney n/a Davis Polk & Wardwell, London, John Paton, Robert Heller n/a 7/12/01 securitization £875 million ($1.25 billion) The British Land Company Meadowhall shopping centre Lead managers, Royal Bank of Scotland; Schroder Salomon Smith Barney; Morgan Stanley n/a Simmons & Simmons, London, Edward Troup, Nicholas Fagge Clifford Chance, London, Michael Wistow, Sarah Squires, Tom Olliver

In a recent Norwegian Supreme Court ruling, the court decided that a Swedish company was liable to Norwegian tax on income deriving from catering services rendered to an offshore platform by a Norwegian subcontractor.

A bundle of new tax acts that significantly alter the German tax system has passed into legislation. As part of the continuing tax reform, the legislator has changed the taxation of foreign executives of German companies. By Harald Herrmann and Maral Rösner of Clifford Chance Pünder, Frankfurt am Main

Shearman & Sterling has raided firms across the globe to boost its international tax practice. In late November the firm announced four lateral partner hires spanning New York, London and Germany.

25 de Mayo 487, First Floor

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in Frankfurt has lost a tax lawyer to the Düsseldorf office of Baker & McKenzie. Dr Jens Heimann is the fourth tax lawyer to leave the office for a rival US firm in recent weeks.