Policy Papers - Supportive

Substantive interest and support for the currency transactions tax among academics, elected officials and non-governmental organizations began with the Mexican peso crisis of 1995. After the Asian financial crisis revealed both the extent of market instability and the devastating impacts on peoples lives, however, interest and advocacy escalated.

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The Action Against Hunger and Poverty Report - also known as the Quadripartite Report - was commissioned by President Chirac of France, President Lula of Brazil, President Escobar of Chile and Prime Minister Zapatero of Spain and it states that "a tax on foreign exchange transactions is technically feasible".

Paper presented at the conference: “Taxing Currency transactions. From Feasibility to Implementation”, organised by Halifax Initiative, Vancouver, October 4-6, 2001.

A Preliminary Report.

Kepa, the umbrella organisation of 200 Finnish development NGOs publishes a counter-assessment to the Finance Ministry Study, which asserts that the study is influenced by neo-liberal prejudice and does not have any scientific or political legitimacy. Kepa demands a new independent study.

The authors, Lieven Denys, Professor of Law at the Brussels Free University, and Bruno Jetin, researcher at the University of Paris North, discuss on the basis of a variant of the Tobin Tax advanced economic, legal and technical aspects of a CTT. The study deals with the objections against the tax and shows its feasibility and desirability. The central message of the study is the CTT is ready for implementation. Its implementation is now only a question of political will.

Adoption of an international tax would be a step toward the democratization and equitable configuration of globalization, however, the political resistance to the project is also a factor to be reckoned with.

Statement submitted to the UN Financing for Development Process.

International taxes have recently become a widely debated topic, because it became obvious that achieving the UN-Millennium Development Goals (MDG) would need a huge amount of additional financing. The WEED-Brochure “International Taxation: Regulating Globalisation – Financing Development” debates the potential of international taxation

In September 2005, 79 States supported the launching of a pilot mechanism in the form of a ‘solidaritycontribution’ on plane tickets in a new statement titled the « Declaration on Innovative Sources of Financing Development ». In this statement, over 65 national and international organizations applaud the leadership of governments in this pilot mechanism and welcome the involvement of Head of States and governments working on additional and innovative mechanisms, specifically on international taxes.

Workshop on Global Taxes for Global Priorities

Response to the Federation of European Bankers Letter of March 2001

On February 28-March 1, President Chirac of France convened a Ministerial Conference on Innovative Financing for Development, attended by approximately 600 people, including representatives of 93 states, 3 heads of state, more than 70 ministers, the UN Secretary-General and representatives of many multilateral organizations and NGOs. This is a short summary report on that meeting and includes the NGO meetings prior to it.

United Nations Financing for Development Submission.

Report of a CTT Expert’s Meeting hosted by CIDSE in collaboration with the University of Antwerp (UFSIA)

Campaign: "2001. Europe, Tobin now!"

Listing seven common mistakes, Jean-Marie Harribey explains how the tax would not lead to the loss of real sector goods value, exchange rate volatility or bias against short-term investment. He dismisses objections to its political and technical enforceability and resolves the tax’s revenue and distribution paradox.

Mission Statement of the Regional Advisory Committee for the San Francisco - Bay Region.

The purpose of this paper is to consider whether the Tobin tax still has the potential to make a
contribution to international development in the 21st century, and to analyse in detail how
such an international tax would work in practice in today’s international financial system.

Interview with Dr. James Tobin.
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Two opposing views presented at the Bread for All Workshop with Kunibert Raffer, professor at the University of Vienna, Austria; Fritz Zurbrügg, department head for IWF and international financing at the Swiss Federal Finance Ministry; and Werner Vontobel, member of the CASH editorial board.

A reaction to the French Ministry of Finance report criticizing the CTT.