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Global Taxes for Global Priorities

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Global Taxes for Global Priorities Global Taxes for Global Priorities James A. Paul & Katarina Wahlberg Published by Global Policy Forum, the World Economy, Ecology and Development Association (WEED) and the Heinrich Böll Foundation March 2002 1 1. Introduction Many crises threaten a globalizing world, ity or business “partnerships.” They must including international financial instability, develop independent revenue sources to growing worldwide poverty, global warm- fund public purposes at the global level. ing, and epidemic diseases that know no boundaries. Solutions require intense inter- Taxes amounting to just 1% of world GDP national cooperation and stronger global would raise over $400 billion per year. institutions. Progress will especially de- Such a sum would meet many urgent needs mand large new financial resources – tens of while placing a very modest burden on the billions of dollars to finance global public world’s richest consumers. health, take steps towards environmental sustainability, and build programs to insure Advocates have offered dozens of proposals education and livelihoods for all. for global taxes, but two have gained special attention: a tax on the carbon content of Unprecedented wealth and productive commercial fuels (often called a Carbon capacity are available today, more than ever Tax), as a means to stop global warming, before in human history. Since 1950, gross and a currency transaction tax (often re- world product has multiplied seven times ferred to as a Tobin Tax), to reduce specula- and product per capita nearly three times, tion and global economic instability. both in real terms. Yet the global economy organizes a vastly unequal division of the Some day, an international political author- world’s resources, promoting private con- ity will levy global taxes, but at present a sumption and accumulation over public robust authority of this kind, with sufficient well-being. Development aid funds have accountability and enforcement powers, declined, urgent global projects have stalled does not exist. So initially, national gov- for lack of money and worthy international ernments must levy such taxes as part of an organizations like the UN have fallen prey international tax agreement. Part of the to budget caps and assessment shortfalls. funds levied will go towards global pur- poses, while part will be kept in the national Bold and innovative steps are urgently treasury. Transition towards truly global needed to tap the world’s wealth. Global taxation will await strengthened and taxes offer the most promising approach. democratized global institutions, sometime International projects and organizations can- in the future, but today we must make a start not depend solely on contributions from along the road. nation states, much less rely on private char- 2 2. Background Global taxes are not a new idea. Legal In 1977 the Washington-based Brookings scholar James Lorimer referred to the idea in Institution convened a number of meetings his 1884 book Ultimate Problems of Inter- on the subject and that same year a UN con- national Jurisprudence. Many of the most ference referred to global taxes as a possible famous economists of the earlier twentieth source of revenues to combat desertifica- 4 century likewise considered it, including tion. Soon after, the United Nations Envi- Alfred Marshall, John Maynard Keynes, and ronment Programme (UNEP) published two 5 James Meade.1 Around the time of the major reports on global taxation and in United Nations’ founding in 1945, econo- 1980 the Brandt Commission issued an im- mists and policy makers often spoke of the portant, widely-read report that reviewed a need for robust international economic pol- number of global tax proposals. The Com- icy to avoid the dangers of renewed depres- mission favored taxes on international trade, sion and war. To them, global economic and its report concluded that “a system of management and even global wealth redis- universal and automatic contributions would tribution seemed not only desirable but a help to establish the principle of global re- 2 logical necessity. sponsibility, and would be a step toward co- 6 management of the world economy.” In the 1950s and 1960s, global taxes receded from view, a casualty of the Cold War and During the 1980s, nations actually estab- fervent opposition from the United States lished one global tax – a levy on deep sea- government and many large companies. But bed mining, incorporated in the UN Law of 7 in the 1970s the idea gained momentum the Sea Convention. Scholars and policy again, among academics, NGOs and a few advocates continued to discuss other forms progressive governments, along with envi- of global taxes in international conferences 8 ronmental concerns and the concept of a and other forums. In 1992, Ruben Mendez “global commons.” Some economists pro- of the United Nations Development Pro- posed that taxes or fees on use of these re- gramme (UNDP) published a pioneering sources could help manage and preserve the treatise on International Public Finance, world’s atmosphere, land and oceans. giving prominence to tax proposals. Subse- quently, a number of prestigious reform The year 1972 proved a watershed. The UN studies raised the issue as a step to Conference on the Human Environment strengthen global institutions. recommended that the international commu- nity consider global taxes. In the same year, in a well-known later paper [Tobin (1978)]. For the economist James Tobin first proposed his Club of Rome report, see Meadows et al (1972). 4 global tax on currency transactions, while See Steinberg et al (1978) and United Nations Con- ference on Desertification (1978). the Club of Rome, in its famous Limits of 5 See United Nations Environment Programme Growth report, discussed global taxes to (1978) and (1980). 3 fund international organizations. 6 Independent Commission (1980). 7 The Convention was adopted in April 1982 and signed by 119 nations in December. 1 Frankman (1996). 8 Tobin’s ideas were picked up by other economists, 2 C. Wilfred Jenks, T.A. Sumberg, Jan Tinbergen, including Larry Summers, later US Treasury Secre- Gunnar Myrdal and many others shared these ideas. tary, who wrote an article in 1989 favoring a tax on 3 Tobin’s proposal was first made in his Eliot Jane- financial transactions. [Summers and Summers way Lectures at Princeton. He elaborated on the idea (1989)]. 3 The Commission on Global Governance Finance ministries in many rich countries (1995) proposed a tax on currency transac- continued to react negatively, however. tions, a tax on multinational corporations, Corporate executives also looked askance and “user fees” for the global commons, and conservatives in the United States Con- including taxes on international airline tick- gress, led by Senator Jesse Helms, strongly ets, ocean maritime transport and ocean, objected.17 Many in Congress claimed non-coastal fishing.9 The Dag Ham- global taxes threatened US sovereignty and marskjöld Foundation report on Renewing they accused tax advocates of favoring au- the United Nations System (1994),10 the thoritarian world government.18 In 1996 Independent Commission on Population and Congress considered a bill making payment Quality of Life (1995),11 the Global Com- of US dues to the United Nations condi- mission to Fund the United Nations (1995)12 tional upon the UN abandoning efforts that and the South Centre report on UN reform “develop, advocate, promote or publicize (1996)13 also offered proposals and analysis proposals” that impose taxes or fees on US on the subject. Even within the precincts of citizens.19 The bill eventually was signed the International Monetary Fund, a serious into law on November 26, 1997.20 working paper on currency transaction taxes emerged.14 In a period of financial crisis for the United Nations, this threat immediately stifled dis- Several governments, including Austria and cussion in UN forums. UNDP quietly ended the Netherlands, studied the issue and qui- its research into the issue. Secretary General etly supported it. Within the UN system, Boutros Boutros-Ghali lost his bid for a sec- UNEP organized a conference and UNDP ond term (December, 1996), in part for this set up a research project on global taxes, reason.21 The United States also blocked which soon resulted in an influential volume European proposals for environmental taxes on The Tobin Tax (1996).15 Secretary Gen- at the talks on global climate change. The eral Boutros Boutros-Ghali gave the subject US eventually imposed a weak alternative – a highly visible boost in a famous speech at an emissions trading system – in the path- Oxford University (1996) and the UN Eco- mark Kyoto Protocol, of December, 1997. nomic and Social Council held a full debate 16 on the subject (1996). 9 Commission on Global Governance (1995), 217-21. 10 Childers with Urquhart (1994), 154-156. 17 Even in nations where parliaments and some mem- 11 D’Orville and Najman (1995). The report’s pref- bers of government are favorable, Finance Ministries ace states unequivocally “global problems demand have been cool. Canada is a well-known case, but global solutions and global resources.” Chancellor the same is true of Germany and France. Helmut Kohl of Germany, among many others, en- 18 Conservative think tanks like the Heritage Founda- dorsed the study. tion were particularly vocal on the matter. 12 Harlan Cleveland et al (1995). The report was first 19 See US Senate Bill 1519, 104th Congress, 2nd Ses- published in the journal Futures in March, 1995. sion, 22 January, 1996. The item banning UN advo- 13 South Centre (1996), 88-92. cacy for global taxes was added just days after the 14 Spahn (1995). Secretary General’s Oxford speech. 15 Mahbub ul Haq et al (1996). The book emerged 20 The Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and from a conference held on October 10, 1995 by the Related Programs Appropriations Act of 1998, Public UNDP Office for Development Studies.
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