UK Says No To Tobin Tax - Again

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

13 May 2002

UK Chancellor Gordon Brown has once again stated that in the opinion of the British government, the possibility of imposing a 'Tobin Tax' on foreign exchange transactions is an unrealistic one.

The tax was first proposed by US Nobel Prize winner James Tobin over thirty years ago, and has been pushed by non-governmental organisations throughout Europe, and by certain EU member states as an effective way in which to prevent speculative assualts on the currencies of developing countries which could - and have in the past - pushed several economies to near collapse.

However, speaking in parliament last Thursday, Gordon Brown told politicians that: 'The proposals that were put forward by Professor Tobin were put forward in an era when there was not the liberalisation of currency markets that exists now.'

He continued: 'While it is worth looking again at these proposals to see if they could have a beneficial effect (we) would find it very difficult to implement the sort of proposal that Professor Tobin put forward.'

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