A Tobin tax soon in Europe?
The Point.fr - Posted on 26 / 09 / 2011 to 20: 28
The European Commission is due to adopt on Tuesday the proposal for the introduction of a tax on financial transactions.
Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy dreamed of it. José Manuel Barroso did it. On Tuesday, the President of the European Commission is expected to adopt a legislative proposal by the College of Commissioners to introduce a tax on financial transactions.
The text is ready. The last arbitrations took place on Monday. It aims to introduce from 2014 a tax on almost all financial transactions in, to or from the European Union, with the exception of certain foreign exchange transactions or transactions carried out by individuals. But it lacks a crucial element: the minimum rates applicable by type of transaction, floor rates that each state will have the freedom to meet at will.
President José Manuel Barroso has reserved the right to present them himself to his team. They could vary, depending on the transactions, between 0,01 and 0,1%. Strong enough to bring between 30 and 50 billion euros a year, says the Commission. But weak enough not to encourage the relocation of transactions.
Because this risk is the major fear of the United Kingdom. To defend the interests of the City, he asked his representative, Catherine Ashton, to express his opposition to the project. A priori Belgium is in favor, since its Minister of Finance Didier Reynders spoke in this direction. But that will not prevent its representative, Karel de Gucht, in charge of foreign trade, from making a declaration of opposition. On the other hand, the French, German, Italian, Polish and Finnish representatives in particular will vote in favor. "In the end, we should adopt it", we told the Commission.
This will only be the first step in a long and difficult negotiating process within the EU Council of Finance Ministers. A first warm-up round should be held on October 4 in Luxembourg. It will undoubtedly be necessary to reckon with the veto of London. However, such a prospect would hamper the ultimate objective of the Franco-German couple: to have an equivalent tax adopted at the global level. Nicolas Sarkozy will put the file on the G20 table at the Cannes Summit in early November. Disunited, Europeans will have even more difficulty convincing their partners, especially Americans. "In this case, we will do the tax with the countries of the euro zone", says one, bravache, in Brussels.
The Commission has some ammunition in its pocket to try to convince London and, to a lesser extent, The Hague. "The English and the Dutch want to reduce their contribution to the European budget. We are proposing to use part of the tax revenue to finance the EU budget." But to tell the truth, the question of the allocation of the sums is still completely open. Several large NGOs, supported by European Commissioners, are also calling for them to be devoted to development aid and the fight against global warming.
Source: http://www.lepoint.fr/economie/une-taxe ... 683_28.php
Billou's review:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/ar ... 106df1.1c1
Tobin tax feasible even if everyone does not adopt it, according to Bill Gates
WASHINGTON - A financial transaction tax does not need to be universal to see the light of day, and could yield substantial resources, according to a progress report by US billionaire Bill Gates for the G20 AFP is provided extracts.
France, which is chairing the G20 this year, has tasked the former boss of Microsoft to prepare a report on financing for development for the next summit of the main rich and emerging countries, the 3 and 4 November in Cannes (south of France). is).
A progress report is due Friday in Washington at a G20 ministerial meeting on development issues.
According to this progress report, forms of taxation of financial transactions already exist, for example in India or the United Kingdom. The tax "therefore seems feasible even without universal adoption" at the global level, he says.
"If the members of the G20 or another group of states, for example within the European Union, manage to agree on the contours of a tax on financial transactions (...) this can generate resources substantial ", according to this document.
A "small tax" of 0,1% on equities and 0,02% on bonds "would bring in some 48 billion dollars if adopted at the G20 level, or 9 billion if it were to emerge in the main European economies ".
While France and Germany, who advocate such a tax at least at the level of the European Union, prefer for the moment not to discuss the allocation of its revenues, the report considers that a "substantial" share of its product should be reserved for the development of poor countries.
The low-income French-speaking countries, meeting in Washington on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, have also asked that the "resources thus released" be allocated "to financing development".
In a joint declaration, the finance ministers of these states "strongly support the rapid adoption" of such a tax by the EU and "by all G20 member countries on the occasion of the Cannes summit" of the G20 .
So far, Bill Gates has not appeared to be vigorously advocating the introduction of a financial transaction tax, which the United States opposes.
"President (French Nicolas) Sarkozy clearly expects me to try to find a way for certain countries to join this initiative," he told journalists during a visit to Paris in April. "But it is not easy, there are still questions". "If there are only a handful of countries (participants) and not the United States, what is the point?"
French Finance Minister François Baroin acknowledged Thursday in Washington that there was "no consensus today" for the introduction of a tax at the G20 level. "Americans by culture still have reservations," he said.
"Is there a way to continue" to promote this tax? "The answer is yes," he said, however. "We will try to continue" at the meeting on Friday, the minister said.
The original definition: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxe_Tobin