Financial Times Published: July 8 2001 19:12GMT | Last Updated: July 9 2001 02:24GMT

Belgium has put a controversial tax on foreign exchange
transactions on the discussion agenda for its current
six-month presidency of the European Union, to the
delight of anti-poverty campaigners and the concern of European bankers.

Following pressure from the Socialist and Green parties
in the ruling Belgian coalition, Didier Reynders, the
finance minister, has agreed that he and his EU
colleagues should discuss the so-called"Tobin tax" on currency speculation at
their informal September 22-23"Ecofin" meeting in Liége.

The Liége meeting precedes the annual meetings of the International Monetary
Fund and World Bank in Washington, fuelling hopes among Tobin tax supporters
that Belgium might rally EU support for the measure to be included in discussions on reforming the"architecture" of the international financial system. Non-governmental organisations such as War on Want believe the Tobin tax
could fund a massive rise in financial support for the world's poor.

But according to Mr Reynders' aides, the minister, who is a francophone liberal, is not enthusiastic about the tax. Nor is Guy Verhofstadt, Belgium's prime minister, and a liberal from the Flemish part of the country."We said we were prepared to talk about it," was the prime minister's grudging comment last week.

James Tobin, a Nobel prize-winning American economist, first proposed a global
tax on short-term foreign exchange market transactions in the 1970s to calm the
massive instability of global currency markets after the collapse of the post-war Bretton Woods fixed exchange rate regime. Over the years, his plan has been adopted by anti-poverty groups who argue a small levy on currency transactions could swell funds available for third world development.

War on Want claims a 0.25 per cent tax on currency transactions would raise
more than $250bn a year - more than five times current aid to poor countries.
But the Banking Federation of the EU, in a recent critical report, argued the tax would damage trade, penalise investment and be impossible to apply because it would require support from all countries.

"At present nothing can lead us to expect that a consensus could be reached
either within the OECD or the Group of Seven, or even at the level of the EU, for a tax on foreign exchange transactions," it said.

Nonetheless, EU finance ministers will still discuss the tax after the summer
break, if only because of the internal complexities of Belgium's"rainbow" coalition of liberal, socialist and green parties.

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Tobin Steuer hin oder her: wenn die ärmsten Länder dadurch fünfmal mehr (finanzielle) Unterstützung bekommen, dann landet eben fünfmal mehr Geld auf Nummernkonten auf den Caymans, Kanalinseln, Schweiz usw. Und es wird fünfmal mehr Geld für (westliche) Militärtechnologie ausgegeben - wer braucht schon sauberes Wasser oder gar Nahrungsmittel?

Schon mal mit einem Sieb Wasser geschöpft?

Grüße,
Tom

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