WORLD PARLIAMENTARIANS CALL FOR A TOBIN TAX
International Legislators and Parliamentarians Call for Tobin-Style Taxes - Launched April 2000. As of March 5, 2001 537 Parliamentarians from 25 countries have signed the declaration.
----- ACTION ALERT MARCH 2001-----
World Social Forum - Porto Alegre - Jan 25-30, 2001
Robin Round
Policy Analyst
Halifax Initiative Coalition
We use money everyday. Money is a tool; a means to simplify transactions in an economy based on the exchange of goods and services. But the way most of us use money is old fashioned, out of date. Money is no longer a means of exchange but an end in itself. We live in the era of the commodification of money, an era where money has become divorced from the real economy it was originally designed to serve.
"Taxing Currency Transactions for Development"
January 2001
ABSTRACT
Is the Tobin Tax Practicable?
Rodney Schmidt
International Development Research Centre
Government of Canada (Vietnam office)
Tel/Fax (84-4) 942-0177
E-mail veem@hn.vnn.vn
7 June 2000
The proposed Tobin tax is a percentage of the quantity of domestic currency converted into foreign currency. It would be collected on all such conversions of domestic currency, and would be treated by partid be treated by participants in the foreign-exchange market as an added cost to each foreign-exchange transaction. The tax cost would be equivalent to the payment processing costs which, though very small, are currently paid on each foreign-exchange transaction.
One Year Later- Where's the Leadership? Groups Urge Minister Martin to "Walk the Talk" on Parliamentary Motion on the Tobin Tax
March 23, 2000 - Today non-governmental organizations join Parliamentarians in calling for Finance Minister Martin to "walk the talk" on a motion to tax financial speculators.
The Tobin-Type Tax - Debunking the Myths
(This article in Spanish is on this link)
Currency transactions taxes such as the Tobin-type tax 1 are often dismissed by critics before all the arguments have been heard. They view the tax as too difficult to adopt and too easy to avoid. Much criticism is ill-informed or designed to stifle debate. Here are the most common myths and our response to them:
A TOBIN-TYPE TAX WILL HIT THE POOR
The tax is a progressive one, designed to target only those profiting from destabilising currency speculation. The poor don't flip millions of dollars a day on currency and bond markets, the world's biggest banks and investment firms do. This tax will hit them.
Congratulations to everyone who made the historic passage of the Tobin tax motion possible!
A Feasible Foreign Exchange Transactions Tax
Rodney Schmidt*
Research Associate
North-South Institute
55 Murray Street, Suite 200
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
K1N 5M3
Fax: (613) 241-7435
Program Advisor
Vietnam Economic and Environment Management
International Development Research Centre
40 Nguyen Van Ngoc
Hanoi, Vietnam
Fax: (84-4) 766-0469
E-mail: veem@hn.vnn.vn
Abstract
Dear
On March 23rd, 1999, the Canadian Parliament demonstrated world leadership when it passed motion M-239 urging Canada to "enact a tax on financial transactions in concert with the international community." This unprecedented action was viewed by many as an important first step in controlling destabilising speculation on financial markets, the wild and anarchic behaviour of which threatens all the economies of the world.
