Oliver North Attacks UN International Tax Scheme

Tax-News.com, Washington

24 January 2002

Writing in his regular column on US web-site townhall.com, Ollie North picks up on the UN's support for a global tax to aid international development. Earlier in January, news emerged that the UN was proposing to create an International Tax Organisation, which would enable nations to collect and disseminate information regarding their tax policies, assist governments in taxing emigrant workers, and compel members to share tax data. Despite denials by Tim Hall, a spokesman for the United Nations, that the new organisation would be on the agenda of a UN meeting in Monterrey in March, this week in New York the UN convened the "Prepatory Committee for the International Conference on Financing for Development."

The ostensible goal of this tete-a-tete is to "combat poverty and achieve sustained growth as we advance to a fully inclusive and equitable global economic system." Sounds noble enough, says Mr North, but like everything the U.N. does, the devil is in the details. He reminds readers that he warned two years ago of the UN's efforts to redistribute wealth and begin collecting global taxes to finance Kofi Annan's ambitious "Global New Deal." Annan's plan, unveiled in July 2000 in Geneva, would have the United Nations provide a "basic income for all people."

The problem with this concept, says Mr North, is how to pay for it all. The solution? A "global tax," collected by the U.N. Annan's innumerable defenders claim this is simple if the United States and the industrialized West would just cough over a mere 0.7 percent of GNP each year to the U.N.

"Not true. A global tax is not being advocated," said an otherwise nameless person at the U.N. when Mr North raised the issue on his radio broadcast this week. "Secretary-General Annan," said the voice, "simply wants to reform the international financial architecture," and has called on the International Monetary Fund to step up its "surveillance of all economies" and "strengthen international tax cooperation." This apparently is what Kofi calls "good governance at the international level" and will help us "unlock the financial resources that are so desperately needed" for his global welfare program. Elsewhere, Annan said that the conference would be a failure if it did not produce "tangible results," with "effective follow-up mechanisms," to ensure that their goals are "actually done."

And what is it that Kofi wants "done"? asks Ollie North. He wants "sound macroeconomic policies," with "prudent fiscal and monetary policies, (and) an appropriate exchange-rate regime ..." to reduce "exchange rate volatility." That may sound like gobbledygook to most, but to U.N. watchers, that's "code-word" for the Tobin Tax -- an international levy on currency exchange transactions advocated by Nobel Prize winning economist James Tobin to help fund global governance. Experts estimate that a 0.10 to 0.25 percent tax on currency transactions would reap from $100 billion to $300 billion annually for the U.N. As goofy as this idea may sound, congressmen such as Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., support it.

The never-shy "SG", continues Mr North, wants "equitable and efficient tax systems" and says he "recognizes the potential of international tax cooperation to enhance the scope of national fiscal efforts." This, of course, fits neatly with a recommendation that the agenda for the Monterrey Conference includes the formation of an "International Tax Organization," which would be authorized to "develop international norms for tax policy ... maintain surveillance of tax developments," and "take a lead role in restraining tax competition." All this is part of Annan's ambitious plan to rescue Third World economies.

Those in the press and Congress who are generally enthusiastic about the U.N. -- and U.N. taxes in particular -- ought to be required to do two things before the Monterrey Conference. First, they should watch the movie "Black Hawk Down" to see what happens when the U.N. is responsible for rescuing anything. And second, they ought to read Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution to see who has the power to tax the American people. Hint: It's not the UN, concludes Mr North.

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