Number: RL31660
Title: A History of the Extraterritorial Income (ETI) and Foreign Sales Corporation (FSC) Export Tax-Benefit Controversy
Authors: David L. Brumbaugh, Government and Finance Division 
Abstract: A long-running dispute between the United States and the European Union (EU) over U.S. export tax benefits may have reached a conclusion. For more than 30 years, U.S. tax law provided a tax benefit to exporters: first, as the Domestic International Sales Corporation (DISC) provisions; then, with the Foreign Sales Corporation (FSC) benefit; and finally with the Extraterritorial Income (ETI) provisions. The EU maintained for virtually the entire period that the U.S. export benefits violated international trade agreements' prohibitions of export subsidies, arguing that DISC violated the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and later complaining that FSC and the ETI provisions violated the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements that replaced GATT. Successive attempts by the United States to redesign its export tax benefits so as to achieve legality under GATT and the WTO were not successful; GATT and WTO panels without exception ruled against the U.S. provisions. WTO rulings against the U.S. export benefits culminated in 2002 with the approval of up to $4.03 billion in retaliatory tariffs by the EU. Congress began consideration of legislation to repeal ETI, and initially, the EU deferred application of its tariffs. By early 2004, however, the United States had not enacted repeal legislation, and the EU began to phase in its tariffs in March of that year.
Pages: 18
Date: September 22, 2006