Brown Reiterates Opposition To European Tax Harmonisation

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

06 November 2003

Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown has once again spoken out against the idea of European tax harmonisation, arguing against “ambiguities” contained within the draft European Constitution that could lead the UK down a path towards becoming a member of a federal superstate.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph on Wednesday, Mr Brown attacked "old flawed assumptions” expounded by many Europhiles that a single market should “lead inexorably to tax harmonisation, fiscal federalism and then a federal state".

Using familiar rhetoric, Brown contrasted the economic failure of the continental economies such as France and Germany with the situations of Britain and the United States, blaming the "rigidities, inflexibilities and lack of competitiveness," of much of Europe, and arguing that tax harmonisation is the wrong policy to enhance the EU’s global competitiveness.

Last month, the Chancellor penned an equally anti-federalist opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, in which he urged Europe to "conclusively rule out tax harmonization and resolve that tax competition is the basis on which Europe can compete with the rest of the world as well as command popular support." Mr Brown also roundly rejected any move towards "a federal fiscal policy" and called for a "strong trans-Atlantic economic partnership" characterised by liberalisation of economic policies.

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