August 22, 2000
France wants to curb financial speculation, but does not believe that the Tobin tax is a workable way to do so, Finance Minister Laurent Fabius said yesterday in a statement.
The Tobin tax - on lines proposed by Nobel economics laureate James Tobin in the 1970s to tax short-term cross-border currency transactions to curb international financial speculation - will not be imposed on currency dealing, the ministry said.
"It is difficult to work out exactly how the principles governing the collection and distribution of this money could be adopted on a global scale," the ministry said yesterday.
The Fabius report proposed an examination of four key areas to curb speculation, including defining principles of "orderly" liberalisation of capital movement, and stepping up the fight against speculation by combatting illicit financial activity.
It also called for greater regional monetary cooperation as is already the case in Europe, and "the start of real cooperation" between the world's three major currency zones (the dollar, yen and euro).
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