Ben Cardin: “Mr. Speaker, there is a real question as to whether the legislation that has moved through this body would encourage the…”

“Mr. Speaker, there is a real question as to whether the legislation that has moved through this body would encourage the outsourcing of U.S. jobs and exporting of jobs or correct a problem in the Tax Code that needs to be corrected. This is a very serious issue. The Foreign Sales Corporation Act that was enacted was an effort to level the playing field for U.S. producers versus our trading partners, particularly in Europe. For, you see, we have a different corporate tax structure than the Europeans have and the Foreign Sales Corporation Act was an effort to level the playing field. The problem is that the World Trade Organization that we belong to declared that to be unlawful and opposed imposed retaliatory tariffs against U.S. exports. That tariff is now 11 percent. It will grow to 14 percent by the end of the year and 17 percent by next March. Mr. Speaker, it is unconscionable that we have not corrected this situation prior to this time. We had a bipartisan proposal that would have fixed the problem.”