Internationally Co-Ordinated Tax On Currency Speculation

EDM number 629 in 1998-99, proposed by Harry Barnes on 11/05/1999.

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.

This motion has been signed by a total of 21 MPs.