Brussels, 29/02/2000 (Agence Europe) - "Deeply disappointed" by the verdict of the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the EU Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Belgium fears that this condemnation of the tax treatment granted to American sales companies abroad should trigger another transatlantic conflict. Representing the European subsidiaries of American companies, the aforementioned Committee calls on the Union and United States to rapidly settle, at bilateral level, this so called "Foreign Sales Corporation" (FSC) dispute.
"This is a case that should never have been brought and risks reopening fundamental and complex issues of tax and trade policy that were resolved by a 1981 Understanding between the US and the EU", declared Claudio Murri, Chair of the EU Committee's Trade and External Affairs Subcommittee. "This is a sad day for the transatlantic business community, and profits neither EU nor US businessmen", he regretted. He then goes on to denounce the fact that: "The Commission's politically motivated response to several WTO cases that were lost by the EU - notably beef hormones and bananas - has created a lose-lose situation that could escalate into a transatlantic trade or tax war that will be harmful to all involved".