INTERNATIONALLY CO-ORDINATED TAX ON CURRENCY SPECULATION

Early day motion 629, tabled 11 May 1999 by Harry Barnes (Labour). Signed by 21 members.

That this House recognises that an eventual political solution to the crisis in the Balkans will require an internationally co-ordinated programme of reconstruction; further recognises that future instances of ethnically-motivated wars will require some form of international peace-keeping and peace-making; believes that preventing such wars taking place is the most effective way of preserving both life and pluralism in ethnically-riven societies who tensions have often been exacerbated by economic difficulties in a fast-globalising world economy as well as by the restrictive actions of international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank; further believes that whilst military operations, reconstruction and development, including debt-relief and debt-cancellation, will always have to be funded, in part at least, from taxation on individuals and their families, it is also incumbent on international finance capital to shoulder a fair burden of the costs of providing and protecting a stable political environment for commerce and opening up new markets for the prosperity of the many, not the few; and urges the United Kingdom Government to pursue, with vigour, the possibility of an internationally co-ordinated tax on currency speculation which has the potential of raising substantial revenues for the benefit of humanity as a whole.

Signatures by party: Labour 14, Liberal Democrat 3, Conservative 1, Labour/Co-operative 1, Plaid Cymru 1, UUP 1.