Tobin Tax - International Initiatives

Currently underway is an international initiative calling on parliamentarians around the world to enact a Tobin Tax, and a world economists call for a Tobin tax initiated in the summer 2000.

Over 50 towns in France and the town of Arcata, CA have passed such motions. During the summer of 2000 the Town Council of Genoa (Italy) voted to approve a motion to levy a tax on financial transactions. Below is the official text of the Genoa resolution, translated from Italian. The original text can be found on the Carta website , with a commentary by the Vice-President of the Township of Genoa, Antonio Bruno.

A Resolution by the Town Council of Genoa

The Town Council, considering that since financial globalization increases economic insecurity and social inequality, duping and humiliating the decisions of the people, of the democratic institutions and of the sovereign States responsible for the general interest, it is necessary and possible for the citizens to make public interest prevail over the interest of the financial markets and multinational enterprises; engages the Mayor and the council to obtain that the Italian government and members of the European Parliament uphold and endorse the following proposals :

- that a tax be levied on all financial transactions, particularly those based on speculation, and that the revenue from this be directed to the fight against inequality and unemployment. - that this tax be accompanied by measures of transparency and the dissuasion of financial criminality and tax havens, above all those situated in Europe.

- that the Government take an exemplary initiative in this direction, opening a debate on these themes in Parliament and in the country, and demand that they be put on the agenda of an ordinary, or special, meeting of the European Council.

- that the Government refrain from signing any agreement or treaty of the type Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) or the Transatlantic Economic Alliance (TEP), which weakens democratic sovereignty in favour of the transnational economic and financial sphere. - that the Central European Bank be subject to the political control of Parliament and of the governments of the European Union.