Britain criticised over opposition to tax
the UK’s opposition to taxing stock, bond and derivatives trades is stopping the European Union from making banks help “clean up the mess” from the financial crisis, Germany’s finance minister said yesterday.
“If the financial transaction tax were introduced in all of Europe, which includes the UK, it could help reduce volatility further, not least because it could make leveraged trading less profitable,” Wolfgang Schaeuble said in a speech in London.
“Short-sighted parochialism” is stopping progress, he said.
Chancellor George Osborne opposes a Tobin-style tax on derivatives and other transactions unless applied globally, to avoid banks and brokers taking their business elsewhere.
The UK has already imposed a balance sheet tax on banks.
Mr Schaeuble conceded at a meeting of G20 finance ministers that hopes for a global Tobin tax have effectively ended after Britain, the United States and Canada lined up to oppose such a move.