Didn't some people on this list discuss government subsidies recently? From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_655000/655071.stm
The European Union has won a major trade case against the United States in the World Trade Organisation. The WTO has ruled that the US is unfairly subsidising the exports of its multinational companies by giving them a special tax break - the so-called foreign sales corporation tax exemption (FSC). US officials have reacted angrily to the ruling, but promised not to ignore the findings. A spokesman for the European Union said Brussels was open for talks with the US administration to find a solution acceptable to both sides. The FSC tax break is worth about $3bn a year to US companies. It allows big exporters like Microsoft and Boeing to shield some of their export income from US taxes by setting up a foreign subsidiary. The programme was established in 1984 to offset the tax breaks European companies get when they sell outside the EU. EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Larny welcomed the decision. "The FSC (Foreign Sales Corporation) system, and its predecessor, have had a major negative effect on international trade to the detriment of European companies," he said. Under international trade rules, the United States has until 1 October to repeal the tax law. If it does not, the EU would be allowed to introduce penalty tariff rates on a range of US products to compensate for any losses caused by the illegal US tax subsidy. Personal note: I had to get this information from the BBC's website; I could not find it on CNN.com, ABCNews.com or MSNBC.com. I did find mention of it on wallstreetjournal.com and nytimes.com, but on both sites the article is only available to registered users. Why can I find this news on European news sites, but not on some major US news sites? Jeroen _________________________________________________________________________ Wonderful World of Brin-L Website: http://www.Brin-L.com Tom's Photo Gallery: http://tom.vanbaardwijk.com
