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Baghdad's Laffer Curve-The governing council comes out in favor of free trade and low taxes. 9/21/03
...The new Iraqi Finance Minister, Kamel al-Gailani, has just announced that the country's highest marginal tax rates will be 15% -- on both individual and corporate income.
Mr. al-Gailani disclosed this and other pro-growth economic policies yesterday at the IMF-World Bank meetings in Dubai. Iraq will impose a uniform import tariff at the sensibly low rate of 5%, except on clothing, medicine, food and books, on which the rate will be zero. "Free trade will be a critical element to Iraq's future economic growth," according to the Finance Ministry's summary of the proposals.
"In terms of what kind of economic system they wish to establish, as you point out, the Ba'athist Party was a socialist party. I think it's very hard to imagine any strong support in this country for a return to that economic system, which has left the country really flat on its back, and which does not really provide a model for getting the kind of vibrant private sector which I think most Iraqis now realize is a sine qua non for a stable economy and stable economic growth. So if they choose socialism, that will be their business. My guess is that's not going to happen." ~ Amb. Paul Bremer - Briefing on Coalition Post-war Reconstruction and Stabilization Efforts, 6/12.
Explains much of the noise from the pro-UN/socialist, anti-'Iraqi people' factions and their PR agents in the press, don't you think?