Issues in International Tax Policy‪.‬

INTRODUCTION The tax bill currently being considered by the House and Senate to repeal the export subsidy is the culmination of a whole series of challenges to the legality of a subsidy that was originally motivated by the imbalances arising from a fixed exchange rate. If any provision has ever demonstrated the difficulty of eliminating a tax benefit once bestowed, this one is a poster child. Despite the finding that the provision (and its predecessors) contravenes World Trade Organization Rules and is now permitting countervailing tariffs, and despite the lack of a sound social welfare justification for subsidizing exports, the provision is still in place, some years after the first changes were made.