The PES noted that there was another gap in the G-20 Summit’s results regarding the Financial Transaction Tax. The G20 leaders did not reach any agreement on the creation of a global tax on financial transactions. The PES has been fighting for an FTT for a long time. Despite the financial crisis showing the dangers of unregulated finance, and although money is needed to tackle the challenge of global and domestic public good, such as water, health or climate change, there has not been any real commitment towards this yet. The PES calls on EU governments to move quickly at a European Level since a consensus could not be reached at a global level.
There have been three expert reports with recommendations on how developing countries can fight tax dodging and raise more tax revenue. The IMF, World Bank, OECD, Global Forum and UN presented two reports on tax transparency, and Bill Gates produced one on financing for development. They called on the G20 to commit to greater transparency for multinational companies. The Bill Gates’ report called on all G20 countries to endorse legally binding transparency requirements on mining and oil companies listed on their stock exchanges. However, the PES regrets G20 countries have ignored these key recommendations and stressed that G20 countries missed an important chance to change the course towards a positive direction for development. The PES calls on the G20 to demonstrate that it will use its political power to exert pressure on tax havens in the future and it will throw its weight behind efforts to help developing countries crack down on the tax dodging that undermines development. The PES welcomes the G20 endorsement of a common regulatory and supervisory framework for commodity derivatives markets based on IOSCO’s work and calls for its strict implementation in 2012.
The G20 Summit has been quietly breaking down the protective covering of financial secrecy, which hurts both the economies of developing and developed countries. Unfortunately the movement towards that end is very slow. The era of banking secrecy is still far from over.
