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French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has announced that the country will not tax sporks and other plastic utensils after all.
The French government has conceded that now is perhaps not the best time to introduce the products now because many French are already worried about their declining purchasing power. Indeed, those opposed to the tax criticized Fillon for creating a tax that would hit ordinary citizens in the pocketbook.
This week, Fillon backed off of the tax, telling reporters:
There will be no new tax. There is no picnic tax.
However, the turnabout on the tax was not well received by Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo. Borloo has made it a priority to make France a more environmentally-friendly economy.
After the announcement, the French newspaper Le Figaro reported that the government is considering a second list of disposable products that might be subject to green taxes in the future. However, the government denies the existence of such a list. N’est-ce pas intéressant?
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Do you remember “sporks”? Those plastic spoon-meets-fork utensils that you can get at fast food restaurants?
I remember seeing my first spork at a Kentucky Fried Chicken. I ordered the cole slaw (I have cole slaw issues, am slightly addicted) and got a plastic sealed package of salt, pepper, napkin and spork. It was, I thought, genius.
But now, I realize that it’s also quite wasteful (sorry, KFC) because it’s a lot of plastic and trash (I don’t even use salt and pepper – on coleslaw? Horrors!). And of course, I’m not the only one. Many consumers are trying to limit the amount of disposable items that they use at fast food restaurants and take aways. And at least one country is taking it a step further: France has declared war on the spork.
I’m not kidding. The French legislature has introduced a plan to charge a €.90 (before yesterday, that was roughly $1.26 – no telling what the dollar will be worth today after yesterday’s spectacular market plunge) surtax on all plastic utensils, including the infamous spork. The idea is to encourage the purchase of fewer plastic utensils and more environmentally friendly products.
Will the tax work? Perhaps. Imposing taxes and fees on plastic bags has yielded mixed results. Some critics hail it as a success in places like Ireland, while trade groups argue that the impact has been minimal.
Tax policy has often been used as a means to encourage or discourage certain behaviors. Weaning the public off of the convenience of disposable items may be tough – arguably, consumers may not even notice the additional tax on their bills as the costs of food increases… What do you think? Would the extra tax be enough for you to put away the spork?
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President Nicolas Sarkozy of France has introduced a proposal to ban advertising from state-owned television channels.
In the US, there are usually limitations on advertising on public television. Most public television in the US is financed through a mix of corporate and government contributions and donations of private individuals.
However, in a number of countries in Europe, state broadcasters are funded through a mix of advertising and public money. Sarkozy now wants to phase out ads from France’s public TV stations. To make up the difference in funding, he wants to institute new taxes on private broadcasters, such as TF1 SA, and telecom operators, such as France Télécom SA. TF1 is France’s most-watched television, with its popular mix of gameshows, reality TV programs and American prime-time series such as House and Grey’s Anatomy dubbed in French.
As you can imagine, France’s private TV companies are not happy with this new tax. They claim that the new tax forces them to subsidize state-backed competitors.
Likewise, the European Commission is “not enthusiastic” about the French plans. “For the European Commission, it is important to increase citizens’ purchasing power and growth in Europe. It is not in favour of a new tax on sectors that are drivers of growth,” said commission spokesman Martin Selmayr.
Nonetheless, Sarkowsky plans to move ahead with the move as of January 2009.
Stay tuned to see what happens!
Over the past ten years, the tax burden on wages has eased in most of the world’s industrial countries, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Those changes have benefited the lower and middle class, for the most part.
Only, there some exceptions. The OECD pointed fingers at a small group of countries where the changes have favored high income groups. Among them, Canada and the US. While Canada was lumped together with Australia, Germany, Iceland, Ireland and Luxembourg, the US was singled out.
The report shows the tax burden on wages as an average of the member countries dropped 0.1% between 2000 and 2006. In Canada, the most significant reduction (2.3%) was for workers making 150-200% of the average wage; in the US, similarly the most significant reduction (1.6%) was for those in the highest income bracket. In the US, that reduction is more than three times the rate for those making less than or equal to the average wage.
In contrast, the OECD reported that countries such as France, Belgium, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, and Portugal have implemented targeted tax cuts which have provided the most relief to employees whose wages were less than two third of the national average.
Belgium, Hungary and Germany imposed the highest tax rates overall in 2007, while Mexico, Korea and New Zealand reported the least.
Interesting data.
I’m going to dig around and see what I can find about the collective economic health of all of these countries. Should be interesting reading, no?
