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Paris sees major flaws in the European Commission proposal for the “Robin Hood tax” across 11 eurozone countries, which it fears will backfire by targeting the wrong type of transactions. Christian Noyer, France’s central bank governor, said the Commission plan would “bring in nothing”, push trading offshore, and could be “detrimental” to financing the economy. “Let’s be clear – this is not a tax confined to banks it would have repercussions on companies and individuals”, he said in Paris during his annual comments on the economy.
Pierre Moscovici, finance minister, said that France wanted a large base for the tax “that is based on currency trading – that’s the Tobin tax – as well as certain derivative transactions".
French banks, which have relatively large investment banking operations, have been among the FTT’s fiercest critics and in recent months have intensified their lobbying efforts against the proposed tax. The socialist government, like its right-of-centre predecessor, has made a strong commitment domestically to delivering a stronger European transaction tax than that already introduced in France.
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