President calls for offshore tax

President Leonel Fernández of the Dominican Republic has just called at the United Nations General Assembly for a tax on offshore deposits:

"This charge, in support of the eight Millennium Development Goals, should be applied to capital deposited in tax havens, offshore banks and international financial centres," he said in his speech at the General Assembly."

We are delighted to see these issues being brought to such forums at last. He cited the work of TJN, the OECD, Oxfam and Christian Aid, all of which are now pointing at the problem. We applaud his language, too: Fernández spoke of global inequalities being due, partly, to "the existence of a global financial architecture prone to lack of transparency, secrecy, money laundering, tax evasion and fraud.

Well said. Bit by bit, the momentum continues to build.