68
Opinion of the Court
objecting nations, is by no means equivalent to a sales tax. See Trinova Corp. v. Michigan Dept. of Treasury, 498 U. S. 358, 365-366, n. 3 (1991). But as we discussed above, for the purpose of determining whether a tax is one based on importation, the European VAT system is equivalent to Tennessee's sales tax system—that is, neither system imposes a tax based on the act of importation. Only this latter form of equivalence is relevant under the Container Conventions.
Directing our attention to the amicus brief filed by the United States in Japan Line, Ltd. v. County of Los Angeles, 441 U. S. 434 (1979), Itel next claims the United States Government once interpreted the 1956 Container Convention to prohibit all domestic taxes on international cargo containers. Even if this were true, the Government's current position is quite different; its amicus brief in this case expresses agreement with our interpretation of both the 1972 and the 1956 Container Conventions. Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 12.
In its amicus brief in Japan Line, moreover, the United States did not say that the 1956 Container Convention prohibited the imposition of any domestic tax on international cargo containers. Its position was simply that under the 1956 Convention the United States gave containers "the same status it gives under the customs laws to articles admitted to a 'bonded manufacturing warehouse.' " Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae in Japan Line, Ltd. v. County of Los Angeles, O. T. 1978, No. 77-1378, p. 25 (quoting 19 U. S. C. § 1311). Starting from this premise the Government argued that, like state taxes on goods in customs bonded warehouses destined for foreign trade, see McGold-rick v. Gulf Oil Corp., 309 U. S. 414, 428-429 (1940), state taxes on containers would frustrate a federal scheme designed to benefit international commerce. Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae in Japan Line, at 27-29, and n. 22. We declined, and continue to decline, to adopt this expansive view of McGoldrick and the pre-emptive effect of the Con-
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