Macron wants to fight poverty and climate change with international taxes

The French President, Emmanuel Macronruled this Friday in favor of establishing international taxation to finance the fight against poverty and climate change, in particular with a tax on maritime transport.

Macron, who is hosting the so-called ‘summit for a new global financial deal’, which ends today in Paris, has asked the International Maritime Organization (IMO) for help in tackling the issue of a fee in July.

In an interview on the radio French Infonoted that shipping is “one of the few” that is not subject to taxand that is why a rate must be applied to him, but not only to him.

[Francia pretende acabar con los beneficios fiscales de los alquileres turísticos]

In any case, he said that he is not going to establish a tax only for France because “it doesn’t work when we do it alone“. To exemplify it, he referred to the tax on plane tickets or on financial transactions. “We must set an example -he stressed- with a mobilization as we have done on the minimum rate” of corporate tax, negotiated in the Organization for the Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

That is why he called for “going to find all the countries that do not have” carbon taxes or airline tickets. Beyond the issue of international taxes, Macron defended the latest agreements on the restructuring of Chad’s and Zambia’s debt involving China, which has become a major creditor, above all of African countries, and not only to the Paris Club, which essentially brings together developed countries.

[Macron y Meloni acuerdan reforzar las fronteras exteriores de la UE tras meses de desacuerdos]

Asked about the demand of some poor countries for a simple cancellation of the debt, he warned that this would not work, because afterwards nobody would want to lend to the beneficiary country. In addition, he noted that in recent years, some countries that secured a debt restructuring commitment with the Paris Club, went on to engage with China.

Macron emphasized that in order to finance poverty and climate change, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the world Bank (BM) “they are going to completely change their logic” to mobilize much more money and attract private capital.

In fact, he pointed out that the objective is that “every time one euro of public money is mobilized, one euro of private money must be captured”. He recognized that this will not work for the poorest countries, which will need other mechanisms, but it will work for the emerging ones. And that in any case, private capital must be offered “guarantee mechanisms” so that they decide to invest.