Catching on rather late to the way Blair and Brown are leading initiatives against poverty, Jacques Chirac has produced one of his own. The Economist suggests this might be an attempt to grab some limelight (for non-subscribers: p78 of current issue).

Chirac proposes an 'international solidarity levy,' which is a tax to the rest of us, to finance development directly. He proposes a tax on international financial transactions, a levy on countries which maintain bank secrecy, and a special tax on fuel used in air and sea transport, or a $1 levy on airplane tickets.

The tax on financial transactions is, of course, the Tobin tax which has been kicked around for more than 30 years. It would hit liquidity and could not distinguish normal trading from speculation. In covering all transactions, including those by private individuals, it would incur immense bureaucratic and administrative costs. It would not work unless it were universally applied and enforced equally.

The levy on bank secrecy can be taken as part of the EU attempt to harmonize taxes, and to punish places like Switzerland which allow people to escape from this imposition. This has more to do with stopping people escaping the high tax policies of many EU countries than with helping Africa.

Aviation fuel taxes or ticket levies are popular with some environmentalists who want air travel restricted to the rich, and think budget airlines are an environmental disaster. They, with Chirac, might want to see an end to the opportunities and choices which cheap air travel has brought to millions, but many disagree. The airline industry is in such poor financial shape that new burdens like this could knock it for six, knocking with it the industries which depend and thrive upon it, together with the employment they sustain.

Blair and Brown, instead of seeking compulsory new international taxes with all the consequences that would follow, have chosen to persuade rich countries to help fight AIDS and Malaria, and to support debt relief. Jacques Chirac might command more respect if he handed to those causes the subsidy France gives to its national airline, plus the subsidy which France and the EU give to his farmers.