G20 misses opportunity to endorse a Robin Hood Tax
In downtown Toronto, the venue for last weekend’s G20 summit, the group of leaders missed an opportunity to agree on applying a Robin Hood Tax to wholesale financial transactions.
The communiqué of G20 leaders makes mention of a range of policy approaches on the question of financial sector taxation, including an FTT, but fails to endorse any of them, reflecting the international divisions that still exist on the topic.
The US and the UK favour a tax on financial sector profits (a bank levy), which in comparison to a tax on financial transactions is projected to raise revenues many times less. Australia and Canada remain opposed to financial sector taxation of any sort.
France and Germany are still keen to push for an international agreement on a financial transactions tax before the year end. With November G20 hosts, South Korea, believed to be open to continuing the discussion on FTT, this remains a possibility.
What also remains possible in the coming months is for Europe to push ahead with implementation of its own FTT. This would demonstrate that the financial sector tax is in fact workable, and may help other G20 nations to soften their position toward the concept.
