Global Policy Forum

The presidents of Brazil and France called Monday for new efforts to fight poverty and hunger in the developing world, including the controversial creation of an international tax, to combat the negative effects of globalization. French President Jacques Chirac and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva outlined what they termed "radically new" proposals at a 55-nation conference on economic development here ahead of the annual debate of world leaders in the UN General Assembly.

"We should ensure that the world's unprecedented wealth becomes a vehicle for the integration, rather than exclusion, of the most underprivileged," Chirac said, endorsing the findings of a UN expert committee set up to examine inequities in globalization. "It has now been established that technically realistic and economically rational solutions exist: the use of new types of borrowing and the international or global introduction of voluntary or compulsory contributions to finance development," he said. "Ideas deemed until recently to be utopian or irresponsible are now coming to the fore," Chirac said, stressing that a new tax scheme could be designed to prevent imbalances, sovereignty and transparency. "A taboo is lifting."

"The most destructive weapon of mass destruction in the world today is poverty," Lula said, adding his voice to the calls for change. "We need to globalize the values of democracy in order to respond to poverty." "We must harness globalization, we must turn it into a positive force for all peoples of the world," he said, arguing that fair market access and opportunity for workers are essential to promoting and protecting human rights. The expert group was set up look at ways to reduce the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by half between now and 2015, consistent with goals the United Nations adopted in 2000.

Their 150-page report suggests a tax be imposed on greenhouse gas emissions as well as certain financial transactions, arms sales and multinational corporations to build a 50-billion-dollar war chest to fight poverty. Other proposed approaches raise the possibility of taxes levied on ships transiting key maritime straits, airline tickets, credit card purchases as well as an international lottery.

The experts' report, entitled "A Fair Globalization -- Creating Opportunities for All," acknowledges that global consensus on the tax proposal does not now exist and the United States, in particular, opposes the concept. "There is too much emphasis (in the report) on schemes such as global taxes to raise external resources," said US Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman, who represented Washington at the conference. "Global taxes are inherently undemocratic, implementation is impossible," she said.

The report also calls for reforms in multinational organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to reduce debt and proposes that agencies like the World Trade Organization and International Labor Organization redouble efforts to protect the well-being of workers in least developed countries. And it calls for the wealthiest UN members to increase their contributions to the world body and its affiliated agencies to redress global imbalances in wealth. UN chief Kofi Annan called for the report's findings to studied and acted upon speedily. "As we study these proposals, we must not let analysis become an excuse for paralysis," he said. "We need to move quickly."

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