Several years ago, the World Trade Organization ruled that some provisions of our tax code covering foreign sales amounted to a subsidy for our exporters.

* Several years ago, the World Trade Organization ruled that some provisions of our tax code covering foreign sales amounted to a subsidy for our exporters. It ruled that the European Union was therefore within its rights to retaliate for our unfair trade practice by imposing tariffs on us. Congress has spent the intervening time debating what to do but not actually solving the problem--so now the EU has started to impose the tariffs. There are two leading proposals in Congress. Bill Thomas's bill ends the export subsidy and uses the revenue thus gained to clean up the tax code. Phil Crane's bill ends the subsidy and uses the proceeds to give tax breaks to manufacturers, and seemingly every other company with a good lobbying team in Washington. Thomas's bill is better policy, but faces strong opposition from a few companies that have a strong presence in the congressional district of the Speaker of the House, Denny Hastert. Congress ought to stop dithering, and pass something on the order of the Thomas bill. We have some serious differences with the EU, and do not need to prolong gratuitous disputes.