The Panel noted the United States argument that the total number of barrels currently subject
to the lower federal excise tax rate represented less than one per cent of total domestic beer production,
that over 99 per cent of United States beer was subject to the same federal excise tax as that imposed
on imported beer, and that therefore the federal excise tax neither discriminated against imported beer
nor provided protection to domestic production. The Panel further noted that although Canada did
not accept the United States estimate that the tax exemption applied to only one per cent of United States
production, it pointed out that this figure nonetheless equalled total Canadian exports of beer to the
United States. In accordance with previous panel reports adopted by the CONTRACTING PARTIES,
the Panel considered that Article III:2 protects competitive conditions between imported and domestic
products but does not protect expectations on export volume.2 In the view of the Panel, the fact that
only approximately 1.5 per cent of domestic beer in the United States is eligible for the lower tax rate
cannot justify the imposition of higher internal taxes on imported Canadian beer than on competing
domestic beer. The prohibition of discriminatory taxes in Article III:2, first sentence, is not conditional
on a "trade effects test" nor is it qualified by a de minimis standard. As a previous panel found