France outlined on Tuesday a blueprint of its own tax on financial transactions to other EU countries, in a fresh attempt to win backing for such a scheme across the European Union. President Nicolas Sarkozy is hoping the tax will be introduced in France before the end of the year, meaning that parliament would have to approve it before breaking in February ahead of presidential elections.
Paris plans to introduce the tax, which would be imposed on the trading of shares or company bonds, regardless of whether other countries follow suit. Politicians are hoping it will be popular with voters ahead of elections in France and Germany but Britain opposes it.
Britain already has a tax on share trading but does not want a wider scheme imposed by Brussels, fearing it would drive away business from the City of London, the region's financial capital to global rivals such as New York. "I will express the will of the President of the Republic that France will be a pioneer to demonstrate the technical feasibility of this tax," Francois Baroin, France's finance minister, said late on Monday ahead of a meeting of EU finance ministers.
"I explained to (German finance minister) Wolfgang Schaeuble the methodology and the proposed calendar," he said. A levy on financial transactions is similar in spirit to the Tobin tax, which was designed to stop currency speculation, although its aim is to raise money from the financial sector after governments spend billions bailing it out.
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