Several members of the U.S. House of Representatives have introduced the Border Tax Equity Act:
A bipartisan quartet of Congressmen today introduced legislation that would levy a border tax on imported goods unless the U.S. Trade Representative negotiates with other countries to end their border taxes on U.S. exports as well as tax rebates to their own manufacturers.
...
... proponents of the bill note that while World Trade Organization rules do not allow the United States to rebate the corporate taxes its exporters pay, the majority of U.S. trading partners still do so under an exemption in the WTO rules. Under the proposed legislation, if the US Trade Representative fails to negotiate a remedy by an as-yet unspecified date, the federal government will issue rebates to U.S. exporters equal to the amount of taxes they've paid on their goods to an importing nation. It will also levy new taxes on goods being imported into the United States.
As further explained by another source:
US manufacturers say the VAT penalizes US-made goods in two ways: In foreign markets, US goods and services carry the cost of US taxation as well as the added cost of the foreign VAT; and in the US market, foreign goods that have been given a VAT tax rebate have a subsidy because no equivalent VAT tax exists in the United States.
I have to admit, the rules do seem unfair. Is there something I'm missing to suggest that the different treatment of U.S. companies as compared to foreign companies in VAT systems is appropriate? There's more background on the proponents' side of the issue here.
