Action Alert Archives : March 2001
----- ACTION ALERT MARCH 2001-----
March 23 is the second anniversary of the passage of the Tobin tax motion in the House of Commons. At that time 164 MPs stood up in the House and voted to stop currency speculation. I invite you to join Halifax Initiative in sending a message to and MPs and the Finance Minister that we believe they aren’t doing enough to build political support to implement a tax on currency speculation.
Attached is a letter to Finance Minister Paul Martin urging him to take a leadership role in the upcoming UN Financing for Development Conference. The conference will bring over 160 governments together to discuss how more resources can be found or freed up globally to improve the lives and living conditions of hundreds of millions around the world. While the conference itself isn’t until 2002, the preparatory meetings that will shape the agenda and determine the outcome are already underway. Mr. Martin will prepare a list, by April 15, of the themes and issues Canada views as critical. We suspect the Tobin tax (now often referred to as currency transactions tax or taxes) will NOT be on the list.
Please read, add to or adjust the attached letter as you like, sign it and forward it to:
Paul Martin, MP
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A6
All letters go postage-free.
You can also cut and paste the letter and send it electronically to:
Please also cc it to:
pm@pm.gc.ca
Manley.J@parl.gc.ca
Minna.M@parl.gc.ca
Blondin-Andrew.E@parl.gc.ca
Stewart.J@parl.gc.ca
Please also cc it to your MP his/her email is last name.first initial@parl.gc.ca (Paul Martin =Martin.P@parl.gc.ca)
Invite him or her to join the World Parliamentarians Call for a Tobin Tax (copy attached). To date, 23 Canadian Parliamentarians have signed on. Given that 164 voted in favour of the Tobin tax motion in March 1999, Canadian MPs need more than a little encouragement.
Global political support for the Tobin tax is continuing to grow and we need to keep up the momentum here in Canada. As of March 5, 2001, 537 Parliamentarians from 26 countries have signed on to a statement that concludes: “We, parliamentarians and legislators, ask our respective legislative bodies and governments to seize the question of the Tobin tax so that each government will strive for its implementation at national and international levels and explore other options for reforming global finance. “ This group of Parliamentarians had their first meeting at the World Social Summit in Porto Alegre, Brazil in January - over 200 attended. Belgium recently passed a Parliamentary resolution on the Tobin tax and will place it on the agenda of the European Union in July 2001 when Belgium assumes the Presidency. This is a significant victory for our partner organizations and Parliamentary groups in Belgium and throughout Europe who have been working hard to put the tax on the EU agenda.
Please share this letter with friends, colleagues and within your networks. Electronic copies can be provided by forwarding a request to rjround@halifaxinitiative.org
Thanks for participating.
WHO VOTED YES ON MARCH 23, 1999?
Adams Alcock Assad Augustine Bachand (Saint - Jean) Bailey Baker Bakopanos Barnes Beaumier Bélair Bélanger Bellemare Bennett Bertrand Bevilacqua Blaikie Blondin - Andrew Bonin Bonwick Boudria Bradshaw Brown Byrne Caccia Calder Cannis Caplan Carroll Catterall Cauchon Chamberlain Chan Charbonneau Clouthier Coderre Collenette Comuzzi Cullen Desjarlais DeVillers Dhaliwal Dion Discepola Dockrill Dromisky Drouin Dubé (Lévis - et - Chutes - de - la - Chaudière) Duhamel Dumas Earle Easter Eggleton Finestone Finlay Fontana Fry Gagliano Gallaway Godfrey Godin (Acadie - Bathurst) Godin (Châteauguay) Goodale Guarnieri Hardy Harvard Hubbard Ianno Iftody Jackson Jennings Jordan Karetak - Lindell Karygiannis Keddy (South Shore) Keyes Kilger (Stormont - Dundas - Charlottenburgh) Kilgour (Edmonton Southeast) Kraft Sloan Lebel Lee Lefebvre Leung Lincoln MacAulay Mahoney Malhi Maloney Mancini Marchi Marleau Martin (Esquimalt - Juan de Fuca) Martin (LaSalle - Émard) Martin (Winnipeg Centre) Massé Mayfield McCormick McDonough McGuire McKay (Scarborough East) McLellan (Edmonton West) McTeague McWhinney Ménard Meredith Mifflin Minna Mitchell Morrison Murray Myers Nault Normand Nystrom O'Brien (Labrador) O'Brien (London - Fanshawe) O'Reilly Pagtakhan Paradis Parrish Peric Peterson Pettigrew Phinney Pickard (Chatham - Kent Essex) Pillitteri Plamondon Proctor Proud Provenzano Redman Reed Richardson Riis Robillard Robinson Rocheleau Rock Saada Scott (Fredericton) Sekora Serré Solomon St. Denis Steckle Stewart (Brant) Stewart (Northumberland) St - Hilaire St - Julien Stoffer Szabo Telegdi Thibeault Torsney Tremblay (Lac - Saint - Jean) Ur Valeri Vanclief Vautour Wappel Wasylycia - Leis Whelan Wilfert Wood (164 Parliamentarians)
WHO’S SIGNED THE WORLD PARLIAMENTARIANS CALL FOR A TOBIN TAX?
LIBERALS - André HARVEY/Joe JORDAN/Rick LALIBERTE/Andy SCOTT
NDP - Bill BLAIKIE/Libby DAVIES/Bev DESLARLAIS/Wendy LILL/Patrick MARTIN/Alexa McDONOUGH/Lorne NYSTROM/Svend ROBINSON/Peter STOFFER/Judy WASYLYCIA-LEIS BLOC QUÉBÉCOISE - Hélène Alarie/Stéphane BERGERON/Paul CRETE/Francine LALONDE/Ghislain LEBIL/Yves ROCHELEAU/Pauline PICARDCaroline ST-HILAIRE/Stéphan TREMBLAY
Hon. Paul Martin, MP
House of Commons
Ottawa ON,
K1A 0A6
March 23, 2001
Dear Minister Martin,
On March 23, 1999, you led your government in passing the Parliamentary motion to “enact a financial transactions tax in concert with the international community”. Since that time, Canada distinguished itself at the UN World Summit for Social Development in June 2000, by proposing that a study be undertaken by the UN on currency transactions taxes, but more work needs to be done. I am writing to urge you to make currency transactions taxes (Tobin-type taxes) a key issue at the upcoming UN Financing for Development conference.
You have an opportunity to set the agenda for that conference next month. The UN has invited all member governments “to submit to the Coordinating Secretariat, not later than April 15, a concise identification of possible initiatives or themes, which consideration may serve as a means to further focus the substantive preparatory work". I believe currency transactions taxes must be on the top of Canada’s list.
Revenues from currency transactions taxes represent a significant new source of public finance for world development. Given the declining commitment to bilateral and multilateral aid around the world, these taxes could generate substantial resources to support environmentally and socially appropriate development globally. At a time when income disparity and social inequity are increasing, currency transactions taxes represent a rare opportunity to capture the enormous wealth of an untaxed sector and redirect it towards the public good.
In addition, taxes on currency transactions can help prevent the destabilising speculation that undermines human development. When Asian currencies collapsed in the wake of speculative attack, prices skyrocketed, wages fell, companies unable to pay foreign currency debts went bankrupt and joblessness soared. Three decades of poverty reduction and economic growth was wiped out in the region. It will take decades to reverse the damage to living standards and lives.
Currency transactions taxes are designed to reduce or eliminate the small margins speculators profit from. By reducing the volume of speculative flows, the tax is designed to help stabilize exchange rates, increase government control over monetary policy and prevent financial crises. By cutting down on the overall volume of foreign exchange transactions, currency transactions taxes could also reduce the volume of reserves necessary for countries to defend their currency, thus freeing finance for development.
It’s been two years since Canada passed the Tobin tax motion and not enough progress has been made to advance the debate on the tax globally. The inevitability of future crises makes the re-regulation of capital an urgent global imperative. Canada has an opportunity and an obligation to act.
Sincerely,
(Name, address, signature)
cc: Rt. Hon. Jean Chrétien, Prime Minister of Canada
Hon. John Manley, Minister of Foreign Affairs
Hon. Maria Minna, Minister for International Cooperation
Hon. Jane Stewart, Minister of Human Resources Development
Hon. Ms. Blondin-Andrew, Secretary of State (Children and Youth)
PS: I invite you and all the over 100 Liberals who voted “Yes” to the Parliamentary motion in 1999, to sign the “World Parliamentarians Call for a Tobin Tax” and join the global Parliamentary movement. As of March 5, 2001, 537 Parliamentarians from 26 countries have signed on to a statement that concludes: “We, parliamentarians and legislators, ask our respective legislative bodies and governments to seize the question of the Tobin tax so that each government will strive for its implementation at national and international levels and explore other options for reforming global finance.
WORLD PARLIAMENTARIANS CALL
FOR A TOBIN TAX
“The speculation in stock markets is reaching its historical peak. The abandonment, in 1971, of the Bretton Woods pegged currency exchange system led to a considerable increase in the cross-border exchanges of currencies. 1500 billion dollars are exchanged every day whereas thirty years ago it was only 70 billion. Most of these transactions do not correspond to any real exchange of goods but are driven only by the search for instant and often huge-profits.
This evolution is particularly harmful to humanity because it is a major cause of the instability of the currency system which leads to serious and contagious economic crises. These crises, like those in Mexico (1994), Southeast Asia (1997), Russia (1998), and Brazil (1999), ruin years of productive labor in a matter of days. Nations are forced to
buy investors confidence by granting concessions to attract capital, often at the expense of workers, citizens, and the environment.
Consequently, freely circulating and unregulated capital destabilizes democracy. This is why regulatory mechanisms are necessary. One such mechanism is the Tobin tax, named after the American economics Nobel prize winner. James Tobin proposed, in 1978, to tax, at a low rate, all the transactions on the currency markets in order to discourage
speculation and, at the same time, provide the international community with resources. With a rate of 0.05% the Tobin tax is estimated to bring in more than 100 billion dollars per year, which could be utilized for currency stabilization, economic development, emergency relief, or other national and international crises.
Throughout the world, numerous civil society and non-governmental organizations, linked with trade unions, social, ecumenical, and environmental causes are acting in solidarity to request that their governments support multilateral cooperation in the enactment of Tobin-style taxes.
Parliamentarians and legislators support the leadership of civil society, and the emergence of strong public opinion. New levels of multilateral cooperation are needed to tame currency speculation and utilize the revenue for urgent global and local needs.
We, parliamentarians and legislators, ask our respective legislative bodies and governments to seize the question of the Tobin tax so that each government will strive for its implementation at national and international levels and explore other options for reforming global finance. “
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The text of the appeal, in several languages, as well as the list of signatures and links to Tobin Tax related sites are available at <http://tobintaxcall.free.fr> Parliamentarians can sign on line.
As of March 5, 2001,537 Parliamentarians from 25 countries have signed the declaration.
