84
Blackmun, J., dissenting
to the use of containers as 'instruments of international traffic.' " Japan Line, 441 U. S., at 453, quoting 19 U. S. C. § 1322(a), and each, in my view, is prohibited by the Container Conventions.
This is also the view of the other signatory nations to the Conventions. Their consistent practice is persuasive evidence of the Conventions' meaning. See Air France v. Saks, 470 U. S. 392, 396 (1985), quoting Choctaw Nation v. United States, 318 U. S. 423, 431-432 (1943) (" '[T]reaties are construed more liberally than private agreements, and to ascertain their meaning we may look beyond the written words to . . . the practical construction adopted by the parties' "). Neither Tennessee nor the United States as amicus curiae can point to any other jurisdiction that directly taxes the lease of containers used in international commerce. Under the European Value Added Tax (VAT) system, as the majority acknowledges, ante, at 66, no direct tax is imposed on the value of international container leases.
In an attempt to make international practice fit its reading of the Conventions, the majority mistakenly equates the European VAT on goods with Tennessee's tax on containers. See ante, at 66-67. The European VAT is analogous to an American sales tax but is imposed on the value added to goods at each stage of production or distribution rather than on their sale price. See Trinova Corp. v. Michigan Dept. of Treasury, 498 U. S. 358, 365-366, n. 3 (1991). The act of transporting goods to their place of sale adds to their value and the cost of transportation is reflected in their price. An American sales tax reaches the cost of transportation as part of the sale price of goods. The European VAT taxes the cost of transportation as part of the value added to goods during their distribution. Tennessee's analogue to the European VAT is its sales tax on goods imported by container, not its direct tax on the proceeds of container leases. Petitioner does not argue that Tennessee must refrain from imposing a sales tax on goods imported by container. It argues, in-
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