French President Emmanuel Macron took a stand this Friday (23) in favor of creating an international tax to finance the “fight against poverty and climate change”, in particular with a tax on maritime transport.
Macron, who has convened the so-called Summit for a New Global Financial Deal, which ends on Friday in Paris, asked the International Maritime Organization (IMO) for help in addressing the issue of a tax on the sector in July.
In an interview with the France Info radio station, the French president highlighted that maritime transport is “one of the few” that are not “subject to taxes”, which is why it should be taxed, but not only it.
In any case, Macron has said he will not set a tax just for France because “it doesn’t work when we do it alone”. To give an example, he cited the tax on airline tickets or on financial transactions.
In addition to the issue of international taxes, Macron defended the latest debt restructuring agreements in Chad and Zambia involving China, which has become a major creditor, especially of African countries, in recent years.
For Macron, what has now been done with Chad and Zambia is a positive change because “everyone made an effort”, including China. When asked if poor countries’ debt to China is problematic, Macron replied that “if it exceeds a certain level, yes”.
Questioned about the demand of some poor countries for the simple cancellation of the debt with the Chinese, the French leader warned that this would not work, because afterwards “nobody would want to lend to the beneficiary country”.
Macron also stressed that, in order to finance the fight against poverty and climate change, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank “will completely change their logic”, aiming to mobilize much more money and attract private capital.
In this sense, he stressed that the objective is that “each time a euro of public money is mobilized, it is necessary to raise a euro of private money”.
Macron recognized that this mechanism will not work for the poorest countries, which will need other means, but it will work for emerging countries. And that, in any case, “guarantee mechanisms” must be offered to private capital so that they decide to invest.
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