During George Soros’ Press Conference earlier today, I asked him if the propositions of an international tax presented by Lula and Jacques Chirac were realistic. M. Soros had already showed his support to the idea here in Davos, but he is not very optimistic about it actually being done:

"It’s a good thing to have those ideas out there, but I know and we all know that other countries, and the United States in particular, would oppose an international tax. That’s fine but then they should commit themselves to providing the funds needed to help poor countries one way or another. Otherwise, public opinion ought to push them to introduce the one-dollar tax on airline tickets (proposed by Chirac during his speech over video-link last Wednesday). It’s ridiculous that you can’t put 6 billion dollars together for fighting infectious diseases."

According to M. Soros, the international tax will probably never happen but it can at least pressure the rich countries to help.

"I fully endorse the international taxation. It might not be realistic, but I think this is very important for pushing into other ways for effectively financing the eradication of poverty in the world".

– Joana Calmon