John Tierney: “I want to say that today this is supposedly an effort on the part of the United States to comply with the ruling by the…”

“I want to say that today this is supposedly an effort on the part of the United States to comply with the ruling by the WTO in an effort to expedite this action is actually an effort that purports to repeal the corporate tax subsidy called the Foreign Sales Corporation. Unfortunately, what happens when we turn around we are going to actually increase this subsidy. There has been little dispute and far-ranging agreement that existing FSCs have long been a tax windfall to companies like Boeing, General Motors, Big Tobacco, many in the pharmaceutical industry and other corporate giants. As they export, those companies need only set up offshore paper companies and subsidiaries, and they receive the benefit. And that has been a pretty substantial benefit, the single loophole that cost taxpayers more than $10 billion, with $8 billion of that flowing to the very largest corporations all for simply funneling it through an offshore office. Adding insult to injury, the publication Inside U.S. Trade recently reported that supporters of this bill have admitted that companies could qualify for the tax preference now even if little or no physical production actually occurs outside the United States.”