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