Rapaire -

Unfortunately, any tax on imported items without essentially identical tax on domestic production immediately results in claims from the international treaty orgs of "discrimination" and results in retaliatory "penalties" on all exports.

The US is "defending" a half-dozen claims of such discrimination now, and is "prosecuting" a similar number against other countries, considering only the "high profile" cases that make the local news in my area.

A major rewrite of US Farm and Food Commodities regulations was recently enacted for the sole purpose of responding to an IMF charge that US wheat exports were "unfairly subsidized."

The battle over French subsidies for Airbus, vs Boeing marketing, etc. has been going on for more than twenty years - with no resolution in sight.

Countries relying on international markets are not free to use "simple solutions" for much of anything.

I think it all started when the internationl lawyers realized they are not responsible for deciding what's "legal." Their job is to tell you what you might get by with - and how much it will cost if you get caught. There's really not much difference here between countries. Every country "looks for an edge" and tries to prevent every other one from "having an unfair advantage."

John