The European Commission issued a release on 27 January 2017 announcing its decision to require Belgium and France to abolish the corporate tax exemptions granted to their ports, so as to align their tax regime with EU state aid rules. The Commission opened illegal State aid investigations into the port exemptions in July 2016 due to inaction by both Belgium and France to comply with initial requests in January 2016 that the exemptions be abolished. According to the release, the Commission co…