As the G20 Summit in Seoul approaches (click here for more information), the pressing call for a Global Financial Transaction Tax continues. Global March members and partners will recall an appeal we launched on this issue earlier this year when members and partners were urged to sign up to the “Make Finance Work For People and the Planet” campaign that has been circulating for some time. The essence of this campaign is the establishment of a Global Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) as part of the corporate social responsibility of the global financial services sector and to direct the funds from this tax towards alleviating poverty and achieving development goals which would include the elimination of child labour.
There is widespread support for this campaign among trade unions and civil society organisations and there is a renewed effort being made to deliver an international civil society statement to the G20 leaders at the Seoul Summit to call on them to agree to introduce an internationally co-ordinated financial transactions tax.
The alliance of trade unions and civil society is not alone in advocating the merits of such a tax. Research by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), commissioned by the G20, recognises the technical feasibility of the FTT. A report by the ‘Leading Group on Innovative Financing’ has also endorsed a form of FTT. The European Union and UN High-level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing has also considered the FTT and have contributed to building a solid foundation to take the proposal beyond the discussion of options to consideration of its practical implementation.
The joint statement highlights the FTT as “… one of the only available options that could generate the enormous financial resources required to pay for the continuing costs of the global financial and economic crisis, including reducing the unacceptably high rate of job loss, and to achieve key development, health, education and climate change objectives in developing countries”. It goes on to state that “… several hundred billion dollars worth of untapped revenue could be harnessed … [t]his additional financing is required in aid official development assistance in order to meet the Millennium Development Goals”.
The statement concludes by reminding the G20 leaders that: “At the recent UN Summit on Millennium Development Goals, France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy made a very welcome vow to press for an international agreement on FTT during his term as chair of the G20 in 2011. There is, however, no reason to delay. We call for G20 action on this critical issue to begin in Seoul.”
To read the full international civil society statement to the G20 leaders, please click here.
Global March joins with its Governing Board members the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and Education International (EI) to encourage members and partners to sign up to the statement now and send an e-mail, specifying country of origin, to Amy Gray at the following e-mail address: amy@campaignforeducation.org
Thank you for your solidarity!
