Debate on international taxes FES Briefing Paper June 2006 Page 8 the international arena, we shall remain active and focused on results in the framework of cooperative efforts to introduce innovative funding instruments for global sustainable development, particularly in the EU, the G8 and the so called Lula Group(“Action against Hunger and Poverty”).” On the other hand, at the Paris conference in February Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul announced her intention to work for the ticket tax. And in a reply to a letter from Attac to the members of the Bundestag, nearly 100 parliamentarians, among them 25 Social Democrats(including Hans Eichel), announced their support for the tax. The Greens and the Left Party have come out in favor of both ticket tax and Tobin tax- while both the present economics minister Glos and the German Finance Ministry have come out against the tax- the latter“for the time being.” The air transportation industry, with the active help of the tabloid press, has been waging a massive campaign against the project. Conclusion Properly conceived and formulated, international taxes can- like national taxes- be used to generate regulatory effects. In other words, international taxes would provide policy-makers with an instrument that could contribute toward regulating the process of globalization. Adoption of an international tax would be a step toward the democratization and equitable configuration of globalization, on which Jacques Chirac has correctly noted:“The way globalization is developing today, it is not only not reducing inequality, it is deepening it further and further.” In addition, using the second basic function of taxes, viz. generation of revenues, an international tax could also serve to develop substantial new policy options. 4 It will, in particular, prove impossible to fund the Millennium Development Goals without the use of unconventional financing instruments. The front of the backers of international taxation is growing broader and broader. In adopting the air-ticket tax, France, Brazil, Chile, and others, have dared to take a first step into an entirely new paradigm. However, the political resistance to the project is also a factor to be reckoned with. After all, the project is directed against a zeitgeist that generally sees taxes as no more than a“negative externality.” In this sense, the debate over international taxes also has a fundamental sociopolitical dimension; the concern here is to replace the widespread and undifferentiated 4 See Wahl, Peter(2005): Internationale Steuern: Globalisierung regulieren, Entwicklung finanzieren. Berlin. anti-statist affect against taxes per se ­neoliberalism’s key to hegemonic power- with a democratically enlightened approach to the issue. Schopenhauer once said: Every good idea goes through three phases. In the first it is declared to be idiotic; in the second it is bitterly opposed; in the third it is implemented. As far as international taxes are concerned, we are presently somewhere between phases two and three. ^Äçìí=íÜÉ=^ìíÜçêW= mÉíÉê=t~Üä=áë=ÜÉ~Ç=çÑ=íÜÉ=fåíÉêå~íáçå~ä=cáå~åÅá~ä= j~êâÉíë= aÉé~êíãÉåí= çÑ= íÜÉ= dÉêã~åóJÄ~ëÉÇ= kdl= tbba= EtçêäÇ= bÅçåçãóI= bÅçäçÖó= C= aÉîÉäçéãÉåíFK==