THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Hanoi, Vietnam)
_________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release November 17, 2000
STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT
Today I am pleased to sign into law H.R. 4986, the "FSC Repeal and
Extraterritorial Income Exclusion Act of 2000." This legislation is
necessary to address a World Trade Organization Appellate Body finding that
the Foreign Sales Corporation (FSC) provisions of U.S. tax law violated the
WTO Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, and the Agreement
on Agriculture. Enactment of this legis-lation is possible due to
extraordinary bipartisan cooperation between the Congress and my
Administration and the strong involvement of the business community.
Never before has the United States had to enact legislation -- and
particularly legislation in the sensitive field of taxation policy -- in
order to implement the findings of a dispute settlement panel of the World
Trade Organization (WTO). We believe that this legislation specifically
addresses the concerns raised by the WTO Appellate Body and will be found
to be WTO-compliant.
Under a procedural agreement reached between the European Union and
the United States, enactment of this legislation will avoid an immediate
confrontation with the EU by ensuring that the World Trade Organization
must review the new law before any decision authorizing retaliation may be
made. We plan to continue working with the EU to manage this difference of
views responsibly and to avoid any harm to our strong bilateral
rela-tion-ship, and we remain open to further discussions with the EU about
resolving this issue.
WILLIAM J. CLINTON
THE WHITE HOUSE,
November 15, 2000.
# # #
President and First Lady | Vice President and Mrs. Gore
Record of Progress | The Briefing Room
Gateway to Government | Contacting the White House | White House for Kids
White House History | White House Tours | Help
Privacy Statement