- NEW YORK - To the
delight of liberal activists, the United Nations' International Conference
on Financing for Development, which took place in Monterrey, Mexico, last
week failed in its aim of creating an International Tax Organisation, intended
to enable nations to collect and disseminate information regarding their
tax policies, assist governments in taxing emigrant workers, and compel
members to share tax data.
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- In the run-up to the conference, French premier Lionel
Jospin repeated his calls for a global tax on foreign exchange transactions
aimed at supporting developing countries, while his President Jacques Chirac
also called for global taxes, saying: "We need to give deeper consideration
to the possibilities of international taxation."
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- Needless to say, Cuban President Fidel Castro also endorsed
the global tax agenda. But in the event other counsels prevailed.
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- Fred Gedrich from the Washington based Freedom Alliance,
and member of the Coalition for Tax Competition, was in Monterrey monitoring
the conference, and reports as follows:
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- "Amid the pomp and circumstance of this international
gathering of global bureaucrats - a general feeling of disappointment and
bitterness exists - it appears the conference will conclude without a requirement
for a firm commitment on increasing levels of foreign aid from 'wealthy'
countries to 'impoverished' countries or without any mention of the famed
currency transaction tax. In other words - a major victory for US taxpayers.
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- "Organizers of the UN Conference on Financing for
Development originally saw this event as a great opportunity to coerce
and shame 'wealthy' countries, under the guise of fighting a world-wide
war on poverty in a 133 'Third World' countries, into transferring $466
billion annually (an estimated $166 billion on foreign aid and another
$300 billion on the currency transaction tax) to the UN in support of a
host of dubious socialist causes including a standing UN army and a global
international criminal court.
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- "They viewed 'foreign aid and a global tax on currency
transactions' as the primary instruments for obtaining this revenue - and
the United States as the major funding source.
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- "They blame United States in general and President
Bush in particular for them not being able to achieve their goals."
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- In advance of the conference, the United Nations had
denied that an international tax was on its agenda. Tim Hall, a spokesman
for the United Nations, said: 'This has nothing to do with taxing anybody,'
but confirmed that the meeting in Monterrey would be concerned with 'strengthened
international tax cooperation through enhanced dialogue'.
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- http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=7697
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