Thursday, May 31, 2012

Petition to European Parliament - Tax on Imported Services


HOW TO Send Petitions to EU Parliament: https://www.secure.europarl.europa.eu/aboutparliament/en/petition.html


Dear members of European Parliament

The right to work at EU level is guaranteed by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (Article 15).

Unfortunately, nowadays we face remarkable unemployment figures in EU, with the profound social and economic impact that it entails.

One of the reasons behind the unemployment is deindustrialization [1].

Cheap labor on countries with lower living standards jeopardize the sustainability of the welfare state.
Neo-protectionists theories provide sound arguments on the necessity to control free trade with countries having a different level of development and different social and environmental protection policies [2].

Social dumping is unfair competition and taxes on the importation of goods are therefore required to protect our local economy. While, with regard to goods, transport costs favor local economies, services such IT or telemarketing can be easily imported, affecting negatively the local job market.

The progress on telecommunications and internet have broadened the range of globalization to the services sector.

While the services sector is increasingly important in developed economies, it is one of the most fragile as information and knowledge can be delivered instantly, thanks to the information technologies.

To name but an example, the IT sector and India. In the recent years, most international consulting companies, driven by a higly dynamic and competitive environment, are pushed to offshore much of the IT work, to achieve competitive prices [4][5].

Surprisingly, India, a huge exporter of software services, has been taxing imported services since 1994 [3], and Brazil, also has a tax on imported services [6].

The lessons learnt against protectionism, from the 1930's, are no longer valid in the present world.

We believe that the control of the importation of services is as necessary as the immigration control, to protect our economies and our jobs.

Yours faithfully.

References:
[1] Deindustrialization. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deindustrialization
[2] Neoprotectionism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-protectionism
[3] CHAPTER V OF THE FINANCE ACT, 1994 - http://www.servicetax.gov.in/st-act.htm  http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/taxabilityimportsservices/331708/
[4] Offshoring. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offshoring
[5] Accenture. The Offshore Ceiling–Fact or Fiction?. 
http://www.accenture.com/us-en/Pages/insight-information-technology-offshore-ceiling-interview.aspx
[6] http://thebrazilbusiness.com/article/cost-of-importing-services-to-brazil
[7] http://www.leap2020.eu/End-2012-Neo-protectionism-establishes-itself-as-the-new-paradigm-of-world-trade_a8859.html

HOW TO Send Petitions to EU Parliament:
https://www.secure.europarl.europa.eu/aboutparliament/en/petition.html
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/aboutparliament/en/00533cec74/Petitions.html

Monday, May 14, 2012

Crítica al Libre Mercado (Neo-intervencionismo) / Criticism on Free Trade: Neo-interventionism



English version


I begin this blog about the economic crisis with a reference to neo-protectionism.

Neo-protectionism defines brightly the root cause and solution of the current economic crisis in developed countries (USA and Europe), deepened in the latter by a lack of political cohesion.

The fundamental principle is, world-wide free trade drives us towards a precarious social conditions and welfare state, together with environmental degradation. This is a logic consequence of the unfair competitiveness of the enterprises producing in developing countries with less demanding environmental and social policies.

This is not only an environmental problem, but a social one.

In developed countries, deindustrialization entails unemployment, precarization of the job market, commercial deficit and finally economic recession and social inequalities.

On developing countries, development will not provide a welfare state if it is not combined with fairness in the wealth distribution and environmental care. On the other side, the demographic pressures makes it difficult to achieve a comparable welfare state on these countries, that would be a prerequirement for a free trade with the developed world.

Finally, it is difficult to be socially responsible without a ban on "unfair" trading (as opposed to "fair trading").

By setting up taxes on imports of goods and services from countries where the social conditions are not comparable, we could balance the inequalities leading to competitive disadvantages, ensuring global social and environmental sustainable development.




References


Critics

http://themichaelduffyfiles.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/michael-costa-neo-interventionism.html
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/beware_the_neo_interventionists/
http://eng.hi138.com/?i257711_Neo-interventionism_of_the_United_States_on_a_threat_to_world_peace_and_development

Further Reading:
Accenture: Offshore Outsourcing Has Not Worked
http://www.manufacturingnews.com/news/11/0429/accenture.html


Version Español
Comienzo este blog sobre la crisis económica con una referencia sobre el neo-proteccionismo.

Creo que define perfectamente la causa y la solución del problema raíz de la sociedad en los países desarrollados (USA y Europa), agravada en Europa por una falta de cohesión política.

Básicamente, el principio fundamental es que la libre competencia a nivel mundial conduce inevitablemente a una precarización de la sostenibilidad y del estado de bienestar, debida a las ventajas competitivas de las empresas que producen bienes y servicios en los países en desarrollo, con una política medioambiental y social menos exigente.

Esto es un problema no ya ecológico sino económico-social.

En los países desarrollados, la desindustrialización (deslocalización de la producción) genera desempleo y precariedad laboral, balanza comercial deficitaria, recesión económica y desigualdades sociales.

En los países en desarrollo, la industrialización genera trabajos precarios y degradación medioambiental. En países superpoblados, además es de suponer que el desarrollo no conllevará una mejora sustancial del nivel de vida, mientras no se controle la natalidad.

Es económicamente difícil ser socialmente responsables sin una penalización del comercio "injusto" (contrario al "fair-trade").

Mediante el establecimiento de tasas arancelarias a la importación de bienes y servicios procedentes de países donde no existen políticas similares, se neutralizaría esta diferencia competitiva y aseguraría el desarrollo sostenible social y medioambiental.