| 2006 International taxation: the time is ripe
	     
              
              
            Peter Wahl [1] 
 International taxes are a completely new paradigm. Their realisation is  an innovation of historical significance because up until now, taxes have been  firmly linked to the nation state. However prerequisites for international  taxation have appeared because of globalization. The time is ripe for the  establishment of international taxes. In 1996 a number of UN Development Programme staff members published a  book (Ul Haq et al. 1996) in which they proposed an international tax on  currency transactions (the so-called Tobin tax). The publication may be said to  have opened the discussion on international taxes. Since then the debate has  grown in intensity. This is not at all surprising. After all, taxes are not  simply one economic variable among others.  Taxes - more than one economic variable among others  With their dual function – generating financial resources and serving as  a means to achieve regulatory effects – taxes are a key instrument involved in  giving shape to social processes. Alongside the monopoly on the use of force,  taxation may be said to constitute the second pillar of modern statehood.  For the economic model dominant at present, though, taxes are above all  a “negative externality.” And for this reason the core points of neoliberal tax  policy are:  
  tax cuts, above all for  business enterprises and the wealthy; shift of the brunt of the tax  burden to excise taxes and mass taxes; imposition of government  austerity policies geared to the ideal of the “lean state”; and promotion of international tax  competition as a means to compel the non-like-minded to bow to the dominant  neoliberal tax doctrine.  The outcome is a relentless process of redistribution from the top to  the bottom, exacerbation of social polarization, increasing pressure to  privatize public infrastructure, government and state sectors with dwindling  capacities to act and solve pressing problems. In the end, realization of the  neoliberal tax ideology is leading inexorably to social disintegration with  unforeseeable political consequences.  This is why, when we discuss tax policy in general and international  taxes in particular, we are talking not only about money but also about the  possibility of (re)gaining policy space and political options. In a situation  in which the scope and reach of national policy instruments is declining under  the conditions imposed by globalization, international taxes must be seen as  having a major potential for use in regulating globalization. International  taxation is an important approach to developing alternatives to the neoliberal  paradigm and at the same time an indispensable component of a post-neoliberal  world order.  The legitimacy problem bound  up with international taxes  In the democratic nation-state the legitimacy of taxes is based on  democratic parliamentary procedures. The 1789 French Declaration of the Rights  of Man and Citizen established the norm that is still valid today: “All  citizens have the right to ascertain, by themselves or through their  representatives, the necessity of the public tax, to consent to it freely, to  supervise its use, and to determine its quota, assessment, payment, and  duration.” (Article 14). Or, put in a nutshell: “No taxation without  representation.” Since, at least at present, there is no parliamentary representation  beyond the nation-state, i.e. no international or global parliament, to say  nothing of a world state,[2] there is, in the sense of the principle of parliamentary representation,  no democratic legitimation for international taxes and, accordingly, no basis  for them in public or international law. This is a fact that must be taken  seriously, one which any case for international taxation will have to address.  After all, if we attributed absolute validity to the principle of “No taxation  without representation,” there would, of course, be no need for any further  discussion.  It is, in other words, correct to start out by saying that international  taxes can in fact not be imposed on the basis of the legal tradition normally  used to legitimize taxes. But we should also bear in mind here that  globalization was not part of the rationale of historical democracy theories.  The territorial nation-state was - and continues to be - identical with social space  of parliamentary democracy. Now, the fact that that globalization has at least  relativized the principle of territoriality by transnationalizing economy and  communication has substantial implications for the functioning of parliamentary  democracy in general and for taxation in particular. It is for this reason  recommendable to start out by taking a look at the impacts of globalization on  national taxes.  Globalization and taxation  The systems of taxation that developed in the course of the 19th and  20th centuries were conceived for the comparatively closed economy of the  nation-state. Capital and labor were territorially bound to roughly the same  degree. It was relatively easy for national tax legislation to establish the  national tax base. Globalization has given rise to a new situation. The  latter’s economic core may be seen in the fact that national boundaries are  increasingly vanishing for movements of capital, goods, and services. And in  this connection no other factor of production has proven to be as mobile as  capital.  New possibilities to dodge and  evade taxes Globalization has thus opened up new approaches for global players to  dodge national tax obligations. And this in turn is serving to erode the  nation-state’s tax base. Various mechanisms are used in this connection:  
  Financial market  liberalization has subverted most of the controls on capital movements in place  at the national level. And more and more possibilities have also emerged to  transfer funds in ways that circumvent national taxes. At the same time, most  nation-states are actively engaged in cutting taxes on corporate profits,  capital gains, and large assets. As a means of attracting capital into their  own economies, many governments have seen fit to boost their “locational  attractiveness” by cutting taxes for investors. Globalization-related  locational competition is fueling a race to cut taxes that is taking on  increasingly perverse forms of tax dumping. Transnational corporations  (TNCs) have ways to distribute their profits and losses across locations most  favorable to them in terms of taxes. Using procedures like transfer  pricing, these corporations are also able to generate artificial profits or  losses. One approach used here is for a parent corporation to charge subsidiary  excessively high or low prices for intermediate products, services, patents,  and the like. Offshore banking centers  and/or tax havens provide additional incentives to dodge or evade taxes.  The outcome is that revenues from corporate and asset taxes have started  to crumble. This is one of the main reasons for the structural crisis of  national finances.  New ways to earn profits  In  parallel to the new tax problems besetting the nation-state, globalization has  also opened up new sources of corporate profits (Wahl, 2005b). Some of these  new profits can of course still easily be taxed in the national framework. But  the character of a good part of these new high-yield activities is by nature  well suited to dodging national tax obligations.  Now, if anyone profits in this way from globalization, it is actually  only logical that these earnings should be taxed globally, with the revenues  being used to fund the environment, development, and other global public goods.  The Landau Report for this reason sees international taxation of TNCs as “a  normal counterpart to the benefits [TNCs] derive from globalization.” (Landau,  2004, p. 16).  Globalization as a  legitimation for international taxes The globalization-related erosion of the nation-state’s tax base is not  only an economic problem. This development at the same time strikes at the  heart of modern statehood and democracy. A good measure of democratic  sovereignty is being lost because the sovereign is gradually being deprived of  the material means it needs to shape and sustain the community. If the chronic  crisis of public finances leads to further deterioration of community social  and physical infrastructure, the erosion of democratic policy spaces and  options will also be a consequence.  Hence, international taxes may be seen as democratically legitimate because  they restore to the democratic sovereign – the citizenry – some of the scopes  it needs to give positive shape to life in the community. While this can  certainly not be seen as the one-and-all solution to the globalization-related  problems with which democracy has to contend, it is nevertheless a key moment  of democratization. If the argument “No taxation without representation” is not  to relinquish its democratic substance – the power of the sovereign to  formulate and implement public policy – the new interrelationships between  globalization and taxation will have to be taken into account.  Taxes as a regulatory  instrument  Another noteworthy advantage of taxes is their regulatory function. They  can be used to set incentives to pursue certain economic or socio-political  goals. Viewed in economic terms, taxes can serve to eliminate or compensate for  negative externalities and/or to generate positive externalities.  We must, to be sure, bear in mind here that a successful regulatory  effect may also lead to a decline in, indeed in tendency even to a complete  loss of, tax revenues. If this is not intended, or if the ultimate outcome  could be new negative externalities, it is essential to strike a proper balance  between regulatory effect and tax revenues. International taxes can also be  used to achieve such regulatory effects – e.g. a currency transaction tax  designed to drain a macroeconomically harmful level of excess liquidity from  the market, or an air-transportation tax designed to lower kerosene consumption  or reduce emissions.  Earmarking as a key factor for  legitimacy  And last but not least, earmarking revenues from international taxes for  purposes that enjoy a high level of moral authority may serve to boost the  acceptance of such taxes. This is the reason why advocates of international  taxes are in favor of starting out by using these revenues to finance the MDGs  (United Nations, 2004).  The issue of earmarking is as a rule not relevant for national taxation.  One of the fundamental principles of national tax policy is precisely that tax  revenues are not earmarked for specific purposes. All the same, at present more  and more exceptions to this principle can be observed in national taxes. For  example, the revenues from the German ecotax are used to fund social  expenditures. Also, the contributions paid by the European Union (EU) member  countries to fund community institutions are financed from a given, earmarked  share of their national value added tax (VAT) revenues. And the church tax  officially levied in Denmark,  Germany, and Switzerland  also has some very clear-cut features of earmarking.  The most important proposals  on international taxes  The most popular of the proposals on international taxes is the one  advanced by the Nobel laureate in economics James Tobin. It calls for a tax on  currency transactions. The underlying idea goes back to Keynes. The concept, as  well as a number of variants, has been elaborated in great and differentiated  detail. Some recent studies have worked out the legal and technical aspects to  the point where the currency transactio tax (CTT), in a modified, two-tier  variant of the Tobin proposal, is virtually ready for implementation  (Jetin/Denys, 2005). The issues remaining to be resolved boil down to little  more than a matter of the political will needed to take the first step.  Despite massive resistance, the number of advocates of the tax continues  to rise. Both the French and the Canadian parliaments have come out in favor of  the tax. In 2004 the Belgian parliament even passed a relevant bill, although  it is set to come into force only if other EU countries follow suit. The  advocates of a CTT also include Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, the German  Bundestag’s fact-finding commission on globalization (Deutscher Bundestag,  2002), billionaire financier and philantropist George Soros, French president  Jacques Chirac, and Austrian Prime Minister Wolfgang Schüssel. At the Davos  World Economic Forum 2005 former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder likewise  came out in favor of the tax. As early as 2002 the German Ministry for Economic  Cooperation and Development (BMZ) commissioned a study that came to the  conclusion that a two-tier variant of the Tobin tax would not only be feasible  but also desirable in terms of development policy (Spahn, 2002).  The most recent success of the advocates of a CTT is a resolution  adopted by the Austrian parliament on April 27, 2006, calling on the government  to examine, “in the framework of the European institutions, the feasibility of  an EU-wide tax – e.g. a currency transaction tax, a tax in the area of air  transportation, shipping, natural resources, etc. – and at the same time to  work for uniform steps toward the implementation of such a tax - without  placing the Lisbon goals in jeopardy.”  Even though other taxes have also found their way on to the agenda, it  would be absolutely essential not to abandon the CTT or to play off one tax or  tax type against others. The thrust of the CTT is aimed at the core of a  globalization dominated by the financial markets. Without political control of  the financial markets, alternatives to the dominant neoliberal paradigm are  doomed to precariousness.  Certainly, the CTT is not the only instrument suited to regulating the  international financial markets; but implementing the CTT would create a  precedent. This – and not the tax’s alleged weaknesses – is also the reason why  the CTT has run up against such vehement resistance. Indeed, what institutions  ranging from the Deutsche Bank to the European Central Bank have put forward in  the garb of expert arguments has as a rule not been addressed adequately even  in the literature of the proponents (ECB, 2004; for a critical assessment see  Wahl, 2005a).  Environmental taxes  If we take a close look at environmental taxes, we cannot help but find  that the logic of international taxation is quite cogent:  
  Many environmental problems  are international or global by nature and can therefore not be addressed only  in the national framework. And for this reason international financing  mechanism also appear called for. Viewed in economic terms,  environmental damage is a negative externality. That is, such damage causes  costs that are not covered by those responsible for them. A tax or levy would  serve to internalize these costs by requiring those responsible to pay at least  part of these costs. Many environmental goods are  what is referred to as global public goods, or global commons. And they should  therefore be financed publicly, i.e. through taxes.  The air-ticket tax  Since July 1, 2006, France  is levying a tax on air tickets; the revenues from the tax are set to flow into  a fund set up to combat Aids, malaria, and tuberculosis in the developing  world. France  sees this as a contribution to reaching the Millennium Development Goals  (MDGs). The Chilean government has also decided in favor of an air-ticket tax  and has already initiated the appropriate legislative procedures. Brazil likewise  plans to introduce a tax on air tickets in the course of 2006. Norway and Republic of Korea  as well as some other countries have joined the initiative.[1]  The UK  has announced to put a certain amount from the revenues of its already existing  ticket levy into the fund against AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. This is part  of a French-British deal. France  supports in return the British pilot project for an International Finance  Facility which is also destinated to the financing of the MDGs. The French air-ticket tax levies a rate of one Euro on every ticket sold  for economy-class domestic and European flights. The rate for business and  first class is EUR 10. The respective rates for intercontinental flights are  four and EUR 40 per ticket.  The rationale for the higher rates on business and first-class tickets  is not distributional policy. With 60% of the revenues of air carriers stemming  from these classes, the tax revenues collected are accordingly high. On the  whole, the French government anticipates revenues from the tax amounting to up  to EUR 200 million.  Estimates for the Brazilian ticket tax foresee an income of USD 12  million and in the Chilean case it would be between USD 5 million and USD 6  million. These are rather small amounts. However, politically it underlines the  character of the project as a North-South partnership beyond the traditional  donor-receiver relationship.  However, viewed in environmental terms, tax rates as low as these  generate virtually no regulatory effects. Even those used to flying at discount  rates will have no trouble paying an additional one or four euros for a flight,  and the rates for business- and first-class tickets are certain not to induce  passengers to switch other means of transportation, or not to travel at all.  Any attempt to drastically increase the tax rate with the aim of reducing the  volume of air transportation would be bound to run up against virtually  insurmountable political problems. At least in the industrialized countries,  the ticket tax is a mass tax. The air-ticket tax is unsuited as a means of  regulating globalization, at least viewed in terms of the criteria outlined  above. An air-ticket tax is acceptable only in view of its function as a first  international tax, as a means of gaining a toehold for the new paradigm.  In deciding what use these tax revenues should be put to, France has  opted in favor of a dedicated fund, the so-called International Drug Purchase  Facility (IDPF). And here we may bear witness, once again, to the truth of the  adage: The devil is in the details. Brazil e.g. has already indicated  that it intends to pay only part of its revenues from the tax into the IDPF,  reserving a certain share for national expenditures. Bearing in mind that Brazil now has  a pharmaceutical industry of its own that produces, among other drugs, generics  for use against AIDS, we cannot help but conclude that one of the government’s  aims here is to foster the national pharmaceutical industry. Viewed in terms of  development, though, it certainly also makes sense not to squander funds  earmarked for action against epidemics on drugs manufactured by the  pharmaceutical TNCs in the North. In this sense these tax revenues could be  used to kill two birds with one stone: combating epidemics and strengthening  the competitiveness of pharmaceutical production in newly industrializing  countries.  
  
    | Currency Transaction Tax Sony Kapoor Some technical characteristics  Contrary  to commonly held perceptions that a Curency Transaction Tax (CTT) can only work  if implemented universally, it is possible to implement a CTT unilaterally on a  currency basis. For currencies such as the British pound, the Brazilian real,  the Indian rupee, and the Swedish, Danish and Norwegian krone it is a unique opportunity to  implement the tax without first needing to bring other countries on board. The  strongest opposition to the CTT to date has come about from the United States,  yet one further attractive feature of the proposition is that it does not  really need the US to participate for the regime to be successful. This is  because whenever the US dollar is traded in the foreign exchange market it is  always against another (mostly major) currency. As long as a sufficient number  of other major currencies such as the Japanese yen, the Euro and the British  pound subscribe to the CTT regime, most US dollar transactions can easily be  captured.  Using the money for development The  revenues generated from a CTT should be allocated directly to development. This  would then be one of the most progressive taxes in the world – redistributing  money from the richest market in the world to those who need it most – from  those who have benefited most from globalization to those who have been left  behind. However,  the main beneficiaries of the CTT would be the emerging (or middle income)  economies that would stand to gain much more by freeing up hundreds of billions  of dollars currently locked in unproductive foreign exchange reserves. The  reduced cost of sterilizing reserve holding, lower opportunity costs and  enhanced financial stability could generate annual dividends well in excess of  a hundred billion dollars. The  total revenues raised by the CTT would depend on the degree of sign up,  especially from the major currencies such as the euro, the British pound, the  Swiss franc, the Japanese yen and the US dollar. It is fairly likely that a CTT  can be implemented by a small group of countries (or even a single country such  as Norway) in the short term, whereas a more widespread sign up is likely to  take much longer.  |  Emission tax and CO2  tax  In view of the air-ticket tax’s low regulatory effect, the German  Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) has come out in favor of a tax on  aircraft emissions – from noise to exhaust-gas emissions (WBGU, 2002). This  approach, it is argued, would create an incentive to build low-emission  aircraft engines.  As far as international ecotaxes are concerned, one of the oldest and at  the same time most popular proposals is for the imposition of a carbon dioxide  (CO2) tax. The main concern here would be the tax’s regulatory  effect, i.e. reduction of the most important greenhouse gas. Under the pressure  of climate change, the CO2 tax appeared, up to the mid-1990s, to  have good prospects of being adopted. Subsequently, however, the Kyoto Protocol  shifted the paradigm in favor of tradable emission rights. One of the  protocol’s main functions was, in other words, to fend off a CO2  tax. With the Kyoto Protocol now in force since 16 February 2002, the situation  could change. For one thing is certain: The Kyoto Protocol’s reduction targets  – assuming they were reached in the first place – are nowhere near sufficient  to prevent a climate disaster. On the other hand, it is not yet clear what  shape climate-protection strategies may take on in the coming years. This may  well be a good opportunity to throw the CO2 tax into the breach.  The proposal for a kerosene tax also enjoys a certain measure of  popularity. There would be no problem levying such a tax on domestic and  European flights. But levying it on international flights would entail legal  problems in view of the fact that kerosene has been exempted from taxation in  hundreds of bilateral air-transportation agreements.  Other relevant proposals include levies on the use of air corridors,  taxes on maritime shipping, emissions, and movements of hazardous goods, and  fees for the use of maritime straits.  Taxes with a regulatory  economic effect  Alongside the CTT there are also debates underway on a good number of  other taxes with regulatory economic effects, including international taxation  of transnational corporations. A tax of this kind would have a very broad base.  At present some USD 860 billion in taxes are levied on TNCs (Landau, 2004, p.  93). An across-the-board hike by only 5% would generate an additional USD 43  billion in tax revenues. In technical terms, a tax of this kind would be easy  to collect – after all, TNCs are already being taxed – and it would also  involve a high degree of distributive justice (Cossart, 2005). Its problematic  sides would include the fact that it would prove difficult to introduce at the  regional level – because it would mean competitive disadvantages for the  companies forced to pay it; because revenues may fluctuate sharply due to  cyclical factors; and because there is massive political resistance to any such  tax, thanks in large measure to the influence of the TNCs and their lobby on  politicians and the media.  Taxation of bank secrecy and  offshore banking centers  Under the header “Bank Transparency as a Public Good” the Landau Report  notes: “Bank secrecy exactly meets the economists’ definition of a negative  externality. In other words, bank secrecy can be seen as producing a ‘global  public bad.’” (Landau, 2004, p. 96). The proposal on transactions with  countries with strict bank secrecy would certainly meet with broad acceptance if  the one government or the other marshaled the courage to take the lead on the  project.  There are a good number of other innovative proposals currently under  discussion, most of them still at the idea stage, and therefore operating with  only rough estimates. This is no reason to disparage these ideas. It would be  important to further develop them, and above all not to lose sight of them.  Such proposals include taxes on securities transactions or on portfolio  investments.  Other possibilities would include taxes on direct investments and  e-commerce.  Proposals on taxation of the use of inner space for satellites or for  use of the electromagnetic spectrum may sound exotic. But in actual fact both  cases are examples of public administration and control of public spaces, in  principle of the same kind exercised when parking meters are installed on  public streets. The International Telecommunication Union in Geneva already charges a fee for registration  of satellites and allocation of broadcasting frequencies. These fees could  easily be raised and converted into an annual tax.  What is international about  international taxes?  The French air-ticket tax will be levied by the internal revenue  authorities on every airline ticket purchased on French soil. In this regard  the new tax may appear to be just another, normal national tax. Its innovative  elements include the facts that it:  
  is levied in concert with  other countries. It is for practical reasons only that the course of  implementation will be staggered, with France  taking the lead and Chile  and Brazil  then following suit. In other words, the first characteristic of an  international tax is that it is levied in concert with other countries, at  least two countries. The aim of this ticket tax is to continuously raise the  number of players, ideally to include all of the countries of the world. is earmarked for an  international use, in this case for a subgoal of the Millennium Development  Goals, viz. to combat AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis.  The tax will be collected on a national basis, and sovereignty over the  use of the revenues will lie with the nation-states concerned. In other words,  international taxes do not necessarily require an international organization.  However, other, more extensive configurations would also be conceivable. The  tax could, for instance, be collected by a multilateral institution, and  decisions on the use of the revenues from it could be reached on a multilateral  basis. This, though, would call for far more multilateral integration than we  have at present. The EU is now practically the only place where some  rudimentary steps toward such a higher level of integration have been taken.  The political process  There is a considerable dynamics in the process to establish  international taxation. Apart from civil society actors in many countries, the  French government is playing a leading role. The international conference on  “Innovative Development Financing” held in Paris between 28 February and 1 March 2006  and hosted by French President Jacques Chirac, was a breakthrough. The Paris  conference was the culmination point of a process set in motion by UNDP in  1996. This is a brief period of time, particularly if we consider the fact that  in historical terms international taxation is a wholly new phenomenon. After  all, until now taxation has been conceivable only in the national framework  Under heavy attack, above all by the finance community, the CTT has  dominated the debate up to this point. But in view of the political acceptance  problems with which the CCT has had to contend in recent years, other taxes  have also come in for discussion. In 2002, for example, the WBGU published a  report taking a closer look at air-ticket taxes and other instruments of  environmental policy (WBGU, 2002).  The most influential relevant study published thus far is the so-called  Landau Report (Landau, 2004). Prepared on behalf of French President Jacques  Chirac, the report analyzes the whole range of different concepts advanced for  international taxes. It has at the same time served as the basis for a report  submitted to the UN General Assembly by the so-called Lula Group, initiated by  France, Brazil, Chile, and Spain. The group has now more than 40 members.  With the votes of 115 countries, the UN General Assembly in 2004 adopted  a resolution calling for an examination of international taxes as an instrument  of development financing. Problems associated with the need to fund the MDGs  are exerting more and more pressure working to develop both new and additional  sources of funding. The interim review of the progress made in five years of  work in implementing the MDGs shows that it will not be possible to reach the  goals using the conventional instruments of development financing (Sachs,  2005).  The IMF and the World Bank dealt with the issue at their annual spring  meeting in 2005, and in the meantime an internal analysis has weighed the pros  and cons of the various proposals advanced thus far (World Bank - IMF, 2005).  While the report makes no recommendations, it does point to the political  acceptance problems faced by international taxes. In fact, it is mainly the US that is  adamantly opposed to any international taxes. To cite an example, in 2005  Washington demanded, successfully, that the term “international taxes” be  deleted from the Final Declaration adopted by the UN General Assembly.  All the same, the French initiative has now sparked a new dynamic. A  strategy based on a plurilateral approach is proving successful: starting out  with a “coalition of the willing,” a lead group is paving the way for and  promoting the project, without first waiting for a universal consensus to  emerge. To cite an example, the Paris  conference saw the formation of a “Pilot Group on Solidarity Contributions for  Development,” an alliance extending beyond the hard core of countries that have  already declared their willingness to adopt an air-ticket tax. Thirty eight  countries have joined the group (including e.g. Belgium,  Germany, the United Kingdom, India,  Mexico, Austria, Spain,  South Africa and Republic of Korea). This is an institutional  framework designed to guarantee the continuity of the process. The group is  also open for an involvement of civil society.  In July 2006 the Brazilian government held a follow-up conference, where  the details of the International Drug Purchasing Fund (IDPF) and the further  process were discussed. Norway  will be the next chair of the pilot group and will hold a major conference in  early 2007.[2] Conclusion  Properly conceived and formulated, international taxes can - like  national taxes - be used to generate regulatory effects. In other words,  international taxes would provide policy-makers with an instrument that could  contribute toward regulating the process of globalization. Adoption of an international  tax would be a step toward the democratization and equitable configuration of  globalization, on which Jacques Chirac has correctly noted: “The way  globalization is developing today, it is not only not reducing inequality, it  is deepening it further and further.” In addition, using the second basic function of taxes, viz. generation  of revenues, an international tax could also serve to develop substantial new  policy options.4 It will, in particular, prove impossible to fund the  Millennium Development Goals without the use of unconventional financing  instruments. The front of the backers of international taxation is growing  broader and broader. In adopting the air-ticket tax, France,  Brazil, Chile, and  others, have dared to take a first step into an entirely new paradigm.  However, the political resistance to the project is also a factor to be  reckoned with. After all, the project is directed against a zeitgeist that  generally sees taxes as no more than a “negative externality.” In this sense,  the debate over international taxes also has a fundamental sociopolitical  dimension; the concern here is to replace the widespread and undifferentiated  anti-etatist affect against taxes per se – neoliberalism’s key to hegemonic  power – with a democratically enlightened approach to the issue.  The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer once said: “Every good idea  goes through three phases. In the first it is declared to be idiotic; in the  second it is bitterly opposed; in the third it is implemented.” As far as international  taxes are concerned, we are presently somewhere between phases two and three.  References  BIS, Bank for  International Settlements (2005). Triennial Central Bank Survey of Foreign  Exchange and Derivatives Market Activity in April 2004, Basel. Cossart,  J. (2004). “International Taxation: A Resource for Global Public Goods”. Power  Point presentation at a WEED Workshop. Liberdade Brazil and Heinrich Böll Stiftung,  Sao Paulo 2004, unpublished.
 Deutscher  Bundestag (2002). “Schlussbericht der Enquete-Kommission Globalisierung der  Weltwirtschaft – Herausforderungen und Antworten”. Drucksache 14/9200, Berlin.
 European Central Bank  (2004). “Opinion of the European Central Bank on the Belgian Law for a Currency  Transaction Tax”. (CON/2004/34). Frankfurt/M.
 German Advisory  Council on Global Change (WBGU) (2002). Charging the Use of Global Commons. Special Report, Berlin.
 Jetin, B. and Denys,  L. (2005). Ready for Implementation. Technical and Legal Aspects of a  Currency Transaction Tax and Its Implementation in the EU. Berlin.
 Landau, J.P. (2004). Les  nouvelles contributions financières internationales, Rapport au Président  de la République. Paris.
 Sachs, J. (2005). Investing  in Development. A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Report to the UN Secretary General. Washington.
 Spahn, P.B. (2002). Zur  Durchführbarkeit einer Devisentransaktionssteuer, Studie im Auftrag des  Bundesministeriums für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit. Bonn/Frankfurt.
 Ul Haq, M., Kaul, I. and  Grunberg, I. (eds.) (1966). The Tobin Tax:  Coping with Financial Volatility. New York/London.
 United Nations  (2004). Rapport du groupe technique sur les mécanismes innovants de  financement. Geneva.
 Wahl, P. (2005a).  Comment on the “Opinion of the European Central Bank on the Belgian Law for a  Currency Transaction Tax”, Dated from 4th of November 2004 (CON/2004/34). World  Economy, Ecology and Development – WEED. Prepared for the Hearing of the  Special Commission on Globalisation of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives. Brussels, 13 July 2005. Available  from: <www.weed-online.org/uploads/WEED_ECB_CTT.pdf>.
 Wahl, P. (2005b). Internationale  Steuern. Globalisierung regulieren – Entwicklung finanzieren. Berlin.
 World Bank/IMF  (2005). Moving Forward: Financing Modalities Toward the MDGs, Draft Report  for Development Committee Meeting – April 17, 2005, SecM2005-0125. Washington.
 World Trade  Organization (1998). Electronic Commerce and the Role of the WTO.  Special Studies 2, Geneva.
 
  
      [1] Congo, Cyprus, Guatemala,  Guinea, Ivory Coast, Jordan,  Luxemburg, Madagascar,  Mauritius, Nicaragua.  
    [2] Cf. Foster, J. “Beyond consultation:  innovative sources” in this Report.    |