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Brazil Withdraws WTO Complaint Against Florida’s Equalizing Excise Tax:
On May 28, 2004, Brazil withdrew its WTO complaint against
Florida’s Equalizing Excise Tax. Brazil
and U.S. officials stated that they reached a mutually satisfactory solution to
the matter, first raised by the government of Brazil in March 2002.
As a result of numerous bilateral discussions, the Florida Legislature
amended the Equalizing Excise Tax bill to allow persons liable for payment of
the tax to elect not to pay two-thirds of that tax each year.
The bill, which was signed into law on May 12, also prohibits the Florida
Department of Citrus (FDOC) from spending any of the remaining one-third of
excise tax moneys for advertising, marketing, or public relations activities and
codifies the ‘opt out’ provision contained in the settlement agreement of a
related court case. The bill directs FDOC to develop a process for persons liable
for the tax to annually object to payment of the tax. Under the previously existing state statute, Florida taxed
the processing of orange juice in Florida from oranges produced in Florida and
from imported frozen concentrated orange juice.
Some news articles are erroneously equating this tax with the U.S. tariff
on orange juice.
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