UN Conference To Promote Global Taxes; Bush Will Attend

NewsMax ^ | 3/12/02 | Cliff Kincaid

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

A United Nations conference this month will ask world leaders, including President Bush, to consider global taxes to finance increased foreign aid spending.

The March 18-22 International Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico, is organized by the U.N. with the participation of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization. It will mark the first-ever "summit-level" international conference on global development, and Bush is one of more than fifty world leaders scheduled to attend.

The conference will be preceded by a March 14-16 "global forum" of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) committed to "Financing the Right to Sustainable and Equitable Development."

However, these meetings will take place amid controversy.

A recent study conducted by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and Save the Children of the United Kingdom revealed that some humanitarian assistance was provided to refugees in Africa, mostly children, in exchange for sex.

In Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, workers from international and local NGOs and U.N. agencies, including U.N. Peacekeeping forces, were allegedly "using the very humanitarian aid and services intended to benefit the refugee population as a tool of exploitation," their report said.

Also, according to Dr. Norbert Vollertsen, a German doctor who spent 18 months inside North Korea, foreign aid funneled through the U.N. and intended to feed starving people in North Korea is instead being used for military purposes and to prop up that country's Communist regime.

Nevertheless, the push is on for a global tax to guarantee more foreign aid money.

Although the U.S. Mission to the U.N. claims to have worked to eliminate references to global taxes, the final conference document still recognizes the value of "innovative sources of finance."

'Currency Transaction Taxes'

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan issued a January 2001 report identifying them as "currency transaction taxes" on a national and global basis which could finance "social development and poverty eradication programs" around the world.

Annan commissioned a High-Level Panel on Financing for Development, headed by former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo and including former Clinton administration Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin. The panel issued a 72-page report last June proposing an International Tax Organization (ITO) and an "adequate international tax source" for global spending programs.

One idea is the Tobin tax, named after Yale University economist James Tobin, which would target transactions in the foreign currency markets that currently total between $1.2 trillion and $2 trillion a day.

Supporters call the Tobin tax the "Robin Hood tax" because it supposedly taxes the rich nations to benefit the poor. But it would also affect the IRAs, Mutual Funds and pension plans of ordinary Americans that have money invested abroad.

Rep. Peter DeFazio, (D-Ore.) and Senator Paul Wellstone, (D-Minn.), introduced a resolution on April 11, 2000, calling for implementation of Tobin-style taxes. A "Tobin Tax Campaign" in the U.S. also counts the AFL-CIO, Friends of the Earth, and the World Federalist Association as supporters.

While not openly endorsing the Tobin tax, the foreign aid lobby known as InterAction expressed alarm that the Monterrey conference document deleted a reference to "the need" for an ITO, which it described as "a powerful global authority to monitor capital flows ..."

InterAction, a coalition of American-based NGOs that receives $1 million a year in federal funds, includes organizations such as Catholic Relief Services, CARE and Save the Children, which separately receive millions of dollars in additional federal assistance.

In a Feb. 12 news conference, InterAction charged that the Bush Administration's foreign aid budget had "very serious inadequacies."

Foreign Aid Pricetag

But Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neil has said that, "Over the last 50 years the world has spent an awful large amount of money in the name of development without a great deal of success." A 1995 U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee report said the cost of foreign aid for the U.S. over this period has been $2 trillion.

Globally, NGOs have been working with developing countries known as the G-77, the "Group of Seventy-Seven at the United Nations," which retained its original name even though it has grown to 133 nations, including Communist China, Cuba, Iran, Iraq and North Korea.

At a G-77 summit in Havana, Cuba, two years ago, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro endorsed the Tobin tax, saying a minimum one percent tax on currency transactions "would permit the creation of a large indispensable fund" of $1 trillion annually to promote Third World development.

French Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin supports the Tobin tax, while the German Ministry for Development recently issued a report claiming that its implementation is feasible. The German study said the tax could be imposed by the European Union on foreign currencies, prompting the U.S. to take the same action.

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

"We cannot have a global trading system without a global economic policy, a global health care policy, a global education policy..." - Clinton

[RippleFire]

UN_List: for United Nations articles. 

Other Bump Lists at: Free Republic Bump List Register

Don't forget:

• UN International Conference on Financing
  for Development in Monterrey, March 18-22

• World Summit on Sustainable Development
  in Johannesburg, Aug. 26 - Sept. 4

[deadrock]

With W attending, anything can happen. Will he trade a global tax for UN support on bombing the hell out of Bagdad?

[Wurlitzer]

I cannot comprehend what it will take to prevent this. Sooner or later these government types will slip us the weenie on this tax. Once implemented, it will be permanent and will have no limit until the "Rich" nations are brought down to the level of the "Poor" nations. The "Poor" nations will never pick themselves up no matter how many dollars are dumped down their rat hole. No incentive to create their own economy as they now have global welfare.

Jane Fonda and Ted Turner must be having an absolute cerebral orgasm over this. Just what they always wanted: Tax the US to death.

[FITZ]

Bush is going to be there? hmmmm

[mewzilla]

Soemone should inform those idiots over at the UN that Americans fought a revolution over something like this.

Hint to the UN: The other side LOST.

[deadrock]

Times have changes. Half of the voting public(demorats) supports the UN over the US. Revulsion - yes. Revolution - hardly.

[mewzilla]

And a good many Colonials were Tories.

And we still thumped'em.

[PatrioticAmerican]

"Supporters call the Tobin tax the "Robin Hood tax" because it supposedly taxes the rich nations to benefit the poor."

...versus the "Earned Income Tax Credit" where poor people get thousands of dollars in "tax rebates" without actually "earning" it? Not only do the poor in this country not pay taxes, but if they have kids they get money from the rest of us!

I guess the tyranny in our Congress just hates competition!

[KarlInOhio]

At a G-77 summit in Havana, Cuba, two years ago, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro endorsed the Tobin tax, saying a minimum one percent tax on currency transactions "would permit the creation of a large indispensable fund" of $1 trillion annually to promote Third World development.

And how many people really think that the currency transactions which deal with spreads in the tenths or hundredths of a percent will be unchanged if there is a 1% tax on them? The international currency market would dry up except for the final amount needed to handle balance of payment issues. Instead of trillions of dollars per day of taxable transactions, it would drop to billions.

[poet]

It's only a matter of time before the betrayal is evident. Why is bush attending this? It should be dismissed out of hand.

The new world order is alive and well. Remember the p.a.t.r.i.o.t law (read Gestapo Law)section 802. It will preclude another Boston Tea Party becuae patriotic Americans will be adjudicated terrorists.

[Miss Marple]

If you will remember, the last time he went to the UN he pretty much told them what we were going to do and what their responsibilities were. It was the most pro-American speech I have ever heard at the UN, with the exception of Reagan.

If he doesn't go to this thing, they will pass whatever they want. His presence is a strong reminder that we don't actually have to do what they say, and since a lot of countries depend on us for defense, I would imagine they will think twice about trying to get away with this.

[FITZ]

I hope you're right ----otherwise we're in huge trouble.

[poet]

It matters not what someone says, watch what they do. Once a "seed" is planted, it's only a matter of time b4 it grows to fruition. I suugest that you should not be blinded by rhetoric of a politician. Sit back and take an overview of Bush's domestic policies and tell me if you think he is a conservative. "War" is such a great diversion.

[GuillermoX]

With W attending, anything can happen

What's that supposed to mean? When has he ever given any indication that he supports this tax? You wackos will take any opportunity to snipe at Bush.

[ridensm]

But Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neil has said that, "Over the last 50 years the world has spent an awful large amount of money in the name of development without a great deal of success." A 1995 U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee report said the cost of foreign aid for the U.S. over this period has been $2 trillion.

My question is why in the hell is the money stolen from me each year by the government being given away to the world with apparently no results? Oh yeah, it's important to give money to corrupt governments, that's the basis of our own system anyway isn't it?

Seems this 2 tril is pretty close to how much we've put our children in debt, as long as we don't count all the interest we've paid to the global bankers. Who is more important?

[deadrock]

Unlike you wackos who support Bush even if he acts like Gore.