dr. merrill. dr. robinson, in your written testimony, you write, quote there's no evidence to support the assertion that u.s. multinational corporations are at a competitive disadvantage because they face larger corporate tax burdens than their competitors under a worldwide and territorial tax system, end quote. you then cite three studies in support of your statement, including one study which finds u.s. multinationals have effective tax rates that are 4% lower than multinationals based in the european union. but aren't there numerous studies that show that u.s. multinationals are subject to higher effective tax rates than foreign-based multi-nationals. and that seems to indicate that the u.s. -- well, let me put it this way. let me give you an example. dr. merrill cites numerous studies showing in his written testimony a congressional research service released a report earlier this year studying effective tax rates. and one part of the report, c.r. notes that the effective corporate tax rate in the

dr. peter merrill, a doctor of the economics and statistics group at price waterhouse. our fifth witness will be dr. robinson at the tuck school of business at dartmouth and the final with it knopf will be mr. allan sloan, the senior editor at large for "fortune" magazine. our thanks to all of you for coming. it's our custom that your prepared statements will be made a part of the hearing record in their entirety. if you could use your five minutes to summarize, that would be helpful. i know senators have many questions. we're going to have votes at 10:45. this will be a bit of a juggling act. we will try to handle this as well as the chaotic senate schedule allows. mr. stack, welcome. >> thank you, senators. chairman wyden, ranking member hatch and distinguished members of the committee, i appreciate the opportunity to appear to discuss these important international tax issues to which your committee has devoted substantial effort i'd like to begin by describing the work we're doing in the g-20 base erosion and profit shifting or beps project. then link that discussion