- News>
G-8 meet: PM favours levy on world capital flows
Evian (France), June 01: Favouring a small levy on international capital flows to create funds for global development, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today called for rapid elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers to exports of developing countries, phasing out of trade-distorting movement of personnel for providing services.
Evian (France), June 01: Favouring a small levy on international capital flows to create funds for global development, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today called for rapid elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers to exports of developing countries, phasing out of trade-distorting movement of personnel for providing services.
As the leaders gathered, tens of thousands of anti-G-8 protestors clashed with police near the venue of the summit and in Switzerland, blocking highways and bridges and setting fire to barricades. Security forces used tear gas shells and rubber bullets to control them.
Addressing an informal summit of G-8 leaders, Vajpayee called for an "extended dialogue" to discuss issues of development, particularly of poor and developing countries, he said the international community needs to get some benchmarks for monitoring and evaluating the outcomes of the Doha round of WTO negotiations in terms of concrete progress towards a global trading regime which would promote development.
Listing out the areas in which the benchmarks were needed were the rapid elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers to developing countries` exports and broader access of developing countries to pharmaceuticals.
The other two areas were the phase-out of trade-distorting agricultural subsidies and removal of barriers to agricultural exports, while ensuring the livelihood security of billions of farmers in developing countries and the removal of visa and non-visa obstructions to the free movement of natural persons for providing services. Vajpayee has been specially invited to the meeting by G-8 chairman and French President Jacques Chirac.
Vajpayee said the developing countries were "deeply disappointed" by the progress so far on the millennium development round since Doha meeting nearly two years ago.
Thanking Chirac for launching this "excellent" initiative for a forum of discussions between the developed and developing countries, he said this meeting was a major first step in the direction of his demand for quite sometime now for a "global dialogue on development".
Appreciating the focus of these meetings on measures to help African countries, the Prime Minister said these facilities should also be extended to other similarly placed developing countries.
"Poverty, disease, malnutrition and hunger do not distinguish between continent, country, colour or creed. Their counteraction also should not make such distinctions," he said.
Vajpayee felt the huge resources required for poverty alleviation and economic growth in developing countries could not be raised purely through the savings of developing countries. "External augmentation is required." "I hope the commitments of Monterrey and Johannesburg will be fully discharged. We must also enhance and widen the debt forgiveness initiatives for highly indebted poor countries.
"We have to look at measures beyond these to generate additional financial resources for development. We also have to address the problem of unrestrained resources flows, which -- as the East Asia crisis showed -- shatter the economy of developing countries," he said.
The Prime Minister said he believed time has come for the world to seriously consider the idea of a small levy on international capital flows to be credited to funds for global development.
"This would both dampen volatile capital movements and generate appreciable resources for development. I know that various technical problems have been advanced to dismiss this idea as impractical. But its potential is so great that special efforts should be made to create a practical regime for its implementation," he said. Vajpayee said the recent British proposal for an international finance facility and the Asian bonds initiative of the Prime Minister of Thailand "are forms guarantee systems to make capital available for development projects. Such mechanisms can substantially enhance access to resources by developing countries.
"However, we should also ensure that the sound regimes for multilateral development finance built up carefully over the decades are not to be discarded in the process," he said.
Similarly, the Prime Minister said, the convention on biological diversity has failed to transfer technologies to developing countries in return for their bio-diversity resources.
"I believe we need to seriously examine the concept of adequate user fees to developing countries for access to their bio-diversity resources.
"Similarly, the traditional knowledge of communities should be acknowledged as valuable intellectual property. They could charge a fee from commercial users as compensation for the development and conservation of such knowledge over millennia," Vajpayee said.
He said a broader approach should be developed to the system of user fees on global environment resources, which would contribute to the conservation, while simultaneously generating funds for development.
Conservation of the global environment and resource generation for economic growth could be fully consistent, he added.
Concluding his intervention, he said there was an urgency for realisation of the agreed goals set by countries.
"If we do not act quickly to realise these goals, it is going to become impossible in most developing countries to secure political support for any further trade liberalisation or environmental measures," the Prime Minister said.
Bureau Report
Listing out the areas in which the benchmarks were needed were the rapid elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers to developing countries` exports and broader access of developing countries to pharmaceuticals.
The other two areas were the phase-out of trade-distorting agricultural subsidies and removal of barriers to agricultural exports, while ensuring the livelihood security of billions of farmers in developing countries and the removal of visa and non-visa obstructions to the free movement of natural persons for providing services. Vajpayee has been specially invited to the meeting by G-8 chairman and French President Jacques Chirac.
Vajpayee said the developing countries were "deeply disappointed" by the progress so far on the millennium development round since Doha meeting nearly two years ago.
Thanking Chirac for launching this "excellent" initiative for a forum of discussions between the developed and developing countries, he said this meeting was a major first step in the direction of his demand for quite sometime now for a "global dialogue on development".
Appreciating the focus of these meetings on measures to help African countries, the Prime Minister said these facilities should also be extended to other similarly placed developing countries.
"Poverty, disease, malnutrition and hunger do not distinguish between continent, country, colour or creed. Their counteraction also should not make such distinctions," he said.
Vajpayee felt the huge resources required for poverty alleviation and economic growth in developing countries could not be raised purely through the savings of developing countries. "External augmentation is required." "I hope the commitments of Monterrey and Johannesburg will be fully discharged. We must also enhance and widen the debt forgiveness initiatives for highly indebted poor countries.
"We have to look at measures beyond these to generate additional financial resources for development. We also have to address the problem of unrestrained resources flows, which -- as the East Asia crisis showed -- shatter the economy of developing countries," he said.
The Prime Minister said he believed time has come for the world to seriously consider the idea of a small levy on international capital flows to be credited to funds for global development.
"This would both dampen volatile capital movements and generate appreciable resources for development. I know that various technical problems have been advanced to dismiss this idea as impractical. But its potential is so great that special efforts should be made to create a practical regime for its implementation," he said. Vajpayee said the recent British proposal for an international finance facility and the Asian bonds initiative of the Prime Minister of Thailand "are forms guarantee systems to make capital available for development projects. Such mechanisms can substantially enhance access to resources by developing countries.
"However, we should also ensure that the sound regimes for multilateral development finance built up carefully over the decades are not to be discarded in the process," he said.
Similarly, the Prime Minister said, the convention on biological diversity has failed to transfer technologies to developing countries in return for their bio-diversity resources.
"I believe we need to seriously examine the concept of adequate user fees to developing countries for access to their bio-diversity resources.
"Similarly, the traditional knowledge of communities should be acknowledged as valuable intellectual property. They could charge a fee from commercial users as compensation for the development and conservation of such knowledge over millennia," Vajpayee said.
He said a broader approach should be developed to the system of user fees on global environment resources, which would contribute to the conservation, while simultaneously generating funds for development.
Conservation of the global environment and resource generation for economic growth could be fully consistent, he added.
Concluding his intervention, he said there was an urgency for realisation of the agreed goals set by countries.
"If we do not act quickly to realise these goals, it is going to become impossible in most developing countries to secure political support for any further trade liberalisation or environmental measures," the Prime Minister said.
Bureau Report