Lettre à Oscar de Rojas, président de la Commision sur les questions économiques et financières
de l'Assemblée générale des Nations Unies
Voici copie de la lettre qu'ATTAC-Québec et une vingtaine d'autres organisations non gouvernemenales
de partout dans le monde ont fait parvenir aux Nations Unies pour faire état de nos craintes que les
pressions exercées par les États-Unis feraient dispasraître toute mention d'un taxe sur les transactions
financières des documents de la Comission sur les questions économiques et financières de l'Assemblée
générale des États-Unis. Nous vous encourageons à faire parvenir cette lettre aux journaux, de vous en
ispirer dans vos interventions publiques et d ela faire parvenir à votre futur député fédéral de même qu'à
l'ambassadeur canadien auprès de l'ONU :PAUL HEINBECKER, 885 Second Avenue, 14th Floor •
New York, N.Y. 10017 Telephone (212) 848-1100 • Facsimile (212) 848-1195 prmny@dfaitmaeci.gc.ca
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------Oscar de Rojas
Executive Coordinator
Financing for Development Coordinating Secretariat
2 United Nations Plaza - Room DC2-2386,
New York, NY 10017 USA
Dear Mr. de Rojas:
We, the undersigned non-governmental organizations (NGOs), seek your
assurances that the energy, commitment, and trust we have invested in the
Financing for Development (FfD) process will be taken into account and
reflected in the Secretariat working group documents. At the FfD NGO
Hearings of November 6-7, 2000 and in our organizational submissions to the
process, NGOs were strongly supportive of measures to tax currency
transactions as a means to control destabilizing speculation and generate
finance for development. We are deeply concerned that pressures emanating
from the United States and elsewhere may be mitigating against inclusion of
any reference to currency transaction taxes in the Secretariat working group
documents.
We expect the FfD process to produce a document that recognizes currency
transaction taxes as potential means to control short-term financial flows,
generate domestic resources for development and funds for equitable
redistribution to developing countries. NGOs and parliamentarians have
rallied in support of such national measures. Governments have indicated
their interest in the CTT debate as well. Canada has passed a parliamentary
motion in support and parliamentary debates have been held in the UK,
France, Belgium and the European Parliament.
We see ourselves as partners with the UN in Financing for Development. Many
of us are mounting substantive efforts in our countries to ensure the
legitimacy of the FfD process. In addition to further outreach to the NGO
community, we will be engaging our ministers of finance as well as foreign
affairs, trade, international cooperation, parliamentarians and others.
Their participation is essential, and it will be public pressure that will
ensure it.
It was the pressure generated by the NGO community that made the study of
new and innovative sources of financing for development, which includes
analysis of CTTs, one of the most significant outcomes of the UN General
Assembly Special Session in Geneva in June 2000 (Para.142.(g)).
We anticipate that our views, and those expressed by parliamentarians and
government representatives world-wide in support of further discussion of
currency transaction taxes, will be fairly reflected in the Secretariat
working group documents. All the one hundred and sixty countries represented
at the Geneva 2000 UNGASS, including the US, have already indicated by
consensus, a willingness and an expectation of open dialogue on this issue.
We view the FfD process as a means to facilitate this dialogue. We
encourage your work and look forward to the public release of the report of
the Secretariat working groups.
Sincerely,
Robert Jasmin ATTAC-Québec (Canada)
Filomeno S. Santa Ana III
Action for Economic Reforms (Philippines)
Opa Kapijimpanga
AFRODAD (Africa)
Ruthanne Cecil
Center for Environmental Economic Development (USA)
James E. Hug
Center of Concern (USA)
DaeHwan (Dan) Kim
Citizen's Coalition for Economic Justice (South Korea)
Richard Divine/Joseph Foley
Congregation of the Mission (USA)
Clare Nolan
Congregation of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd (USA)
Cindy Moriarty
CUSO (Canada)
Claire Regan/Marie Elena Dio
The Elizabeth Seton Federation (USA)
Robin Round
Halifax Initiative (Canada)
Sophia Murphy
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (USA)
Fernanda L. Carvalho
IBASE (Brazil)
Albert Gyan
Kairos Europa (Europe)
Marie Dennis
Maryknoll Sisters of St. Domenic/Maryknoll Fathers & Brothers (USA)
Wendy Flannery
Mercy Global Concern (International)
Rob Wheeler
Millennium Peoples' Assembly Network (USA)
Morten Eriksen
Norwegian Forum for Environment and Development
Jean-Francois Tardif
RESULTS Canada
Derek MacCuish
Social Justice Committee of Montreal (Canada)
Lawrence Correa/ Fresnida Rufina Castro
VIVAT International
Jens Martin
World Economic Ecology & Development Program (Germany)
Paul Nehru Tennassee
World Confederation of Labor