U.K. Charities, Unions Call for Tax on Foreign Currency Trades

Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Charities, trade unions and faith groups urged U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown to impose a tax on foreign exchange transactions to fund aid projects in poor nations.

The campaign is being backed by “Four Weddings and a Funeral” director Richard Curtis, who will open an advertising campaign today to highlight the case for a tax, according to a statement released in London by the Trades Union Congress and charities including Oxfam and Barnados.

The groups want Britain and other European countries to charge 0.05 percent on each foreign exchange transaction. In November, the U.S. rejected Brown’s call for Group of 20 nations to consider the tax.

“A tiny tax on banks would make a massive difference to the millions of ordinary people around the globe forced into extreme poverty by the economic crisis,” Barbara Stocking, Oxfam’s chief executive, said in the statement.

Group of Seven finance ministers last week distanced themselves from Brown’s plan and instead rallied around proposals for an insurance levy on banks to pay for future bailouts.