Domestic legislation

Conference: "Currency Transactions Taxes: From Feasibility to Implementation", Vancouver, October 4 - 6, 2001


Conference Summary
The citizens-led anti-globalization movement is in its ascendancy, yet risks its credibility if it is unable to articulate an agenda of alternatives to the current economic paradigm. At NGO conferences around the world over the last two years, debate has expanded beyond a critique of the existing economic paradigm and systems to the articulation of the "world we want". One critical component of an emerging vision of global equity and justice, supported by a growing number of non-governmental organizations, unions, Parliamentarians and academics around the world, is the currency transactions tax or CTT.

Speech to the New Humanity International NGO Conference

“A Global Agreement towards a United World”, June 1 – 3, 2001, Genoa, Italy

Experience with Currency Transactions (Tobin) Taxes – Debunking the Myths and Building Political Support

by Robin Round, Policy Analyst

The world of finance has become a global gambling casino, where investors seeking quick profits bet huge sums around the clock. Big banks and investment firms are the players, profiting from the minute-to-minute, hourly or daily fluctuations in prices on bond and currency markets around the world. These players are not investing in the `real economy', which generates jobs and produces goods and services, they are investing in the ‘paper economy’ in which money becomes a commodity rather than a means of exchange.

NGO WORKING GROUP ON EDC (February 2000) : Backgrounder on EDC and the Environment

Prepared by the NGO Working Group on the Export Development Corporation, a project of the Halifax Initiative

The Canadian Export Development Corporation (EDC) is the main source of publicly supported export financing in Canada, designed to complement the private financial sector wherever possible. A federal Crown corporation, EDC provides Canadian exporters with financing products to help their customers, and with commercial and political risk insurance, particularly for higher-risk and emerging markets. In 1998, EDC worked with 4,183 customers in 200 countries, helping Canadian companies to generate nearly $35 billion in sales and foreign investments.

Your Letter One Year After - March 23, 1999

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.

February 4, 1999: Vote campaign reports

February 4, 1999
The second hour of debate on the Tobin tax motion was held in the House of Comons on Feb 3. The Bloc Quebecois has proposed that the motion be amended by removing the words "enact a tax on financial transactions" and replacing them with the following: "promote the implementation of a tax aimed at discouraging speculation on fluctuations in the exchange rate." The language is weaker but not seriously so, and if it brings Bloc support (44seats), is worthwhile.

My overall impression of the debate is that some MPs are ill-informed or are being deliberately misleading in their arguments. The taxes hurt  'average' Canadians" myth seems to be the favorite we must debunk as we argue in favour of the tax.

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