Tobin Tax Movements Internationally

By Robin Round
Regional Coordinator, Halifax Initiative

April 15, 1999

Distributed to the Tobin Tax Network by
ATTAC - Action pour une Tax Tobin d'Aide aux Citoyens/
Association for Promoting a Tobin Tax

I was in Bangkok when I received the news of the vote and announced it to over 300 academics, NGOs and Parliamentarians from over 75 countries to a round of cheers! We were all attending a conference sponsored by leading Southern research and advocacy NGO, Focus on the Global South entitled "Econonomic Sovereignty and Globalizing World". Financial transaction controls figured prominently in our discussions.

The next morning, 20 NGOs and Parliamentarians from 14 countries held the inaugural meeting of the International Tobin Tax Network. What became apparent is that interest in the Tobin tax is high and there is much work happening at the country level :

Two Philippine Parliamentarians were inspired by the Canadian victory and will draft ttheir own House Resolution based on the Canadian one. They have comitted to linking with supportive Parliaments including the ASEAN Regional Parliament and the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Union;

A UK NGO will launch its Tobin Tax Campaign this week and will host a tour by Lorne Nystrom next week. On April 20, Mr. Nystrom will brief the European Parliament in Brussels on the Tobin tax, his motion and next steps, he will then go to London to meet UK MPs;

In Brazil, a coalition of organizations has engaged 45 Parliamentarians in its campaign on currency controls. Official public hearings on capital flows will be held this summer;

The Austrialian Parliament will launch a Parliamentary Inquiry into the impacts of international currency trading this week. Australian NGOs are planning to appear and recommend the Tobin tax;

Over 200 Spanish groups are engaged in the "Citizen's Right to Basic Income" Campaign, which is inviting politicians to rethink the Tobin tax from a revenue generation perspective;

French NGO ATTAC - "Association pour une Taxation des Transactions financií¨res pour l'Aide aux Citoyens", which has offices in Brazil and Quebec, will hold a conference which will include discussion on the Tobin tax following the G8 Summit in June. ATTAC also has an excellent web site (www.attac.org) which links all major sites on the Tobin tax.

In Belgium, 100 organizations developed a financial sector campaign ( which includes the Tobin tax) and presented it to all parties for response. Four parties have integrated recommendations on currency controls in their party platforms. Elections will be held in June;

A Finnish network has conducted a Tobin feasibility study and is working to build support in the European Parliament.

Additionally this month, 15 US groups have struck at Tobin Tax Advisory Committee to share information and develop strategy. Many are working in support of Congressman Bernie Sander's Global Sustainable Development Bill which includes the Tobin tax.

In the coming months, the Halifax Initiative will be working with Parliamentarians and citizens groups around the world to build an International Parliamentary Caucus on the Tobin Tax. Interested elected representatives will be invited to lend their names to a world-wide call for the development of a Tobin tax.

We will also be building support for the Tobin tax by linking with interested citizen's groups around the world. If you have contacts within your organization working in other countries or with other groups working internationally that may be interested in the tax, please have them contact us for more information on the campaign

Next week, the Halifax Initiative will be in Washington for the Annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund where they will be meeting with institutional representatives from around the world. Discussions at these meetings among bankers, bureaucrats and governments will focus on measures to prevent the next financial crisis.

Also next week, we will be holding discussions with staff from the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Finance in Ottawa on Canada's position to the upcoming G8 meeting in Cologne.

More Information on Currency Transaction Taxes

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