Tax Barriers to Intra-Union Trade: American ‘Federalism’, European ‘Internationalism’?

Summary:

This article explores the tension between the idea and practice of ‘parallel’ fiscal sovereignties within a Union and the latter’s aim of creating a common market by exploring the different solutions to this dilemma in the United States and the European Union.

Both have shown greater lenience to fiscal barriers (when compared to regulatory barriers), the US constitutional order has come to find a federal solution for fiscal measures under its (dormant) Commerce Clause whereas the European Union has—with one exception—remained loyal to an international solution. This ‘conservative’ solution is by no means dictated by the ‘genetic’ structure of the European Treaties. In the conclusion it will therefore be argued that the European Union should adopt, mutatis mutandis, a federal solution for its internal market.

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