Friedrich Ebert Stiftung-panel discussed international taxes in Santiago
Silke Oetsch informs in brief via email about the outcoming of the panel of the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation on international taxes that took place in Santiago de Chile, 6 December 2006.
The panel was attended by around 50 persons, mainly people from Chilean ministries and politicians and from some members of the civil society. (Background info in Spanish.)It seemed that the topic was completely new for most participants. Carlos Furche from the Chilean foreign ministry pointed out that the Chilean air ticket levy has only a symbolic value. He asked for a social orientation of commercial politics but as far as I remember he did not mention further international taxes.
Frank Schroeder from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation New York, who was invited to present the CTT, critizised the demand for a CTT to finance development. As he argued the tax with a small tax rate would not prevent financial crisis. For that reason it would be better to introduce capital controls. Following Schroeder a CTT should not be introduced in Europe but in developing countries.
Schroeder summarized Spahn inaccurately and said that the CTT with regulatory effect could be avoided. I had the impression that Schroeder was not well informed about the topic and had no idea of the political process. In my statement I could rebut some of the arguments and refer to the recent reports but we had only few time to discuss.
All the best,
Silke
Last modified
2006-12-18 05:18 PM
