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ActionAid International

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 4, 2011

ActionAid Reacts to Conclusion of G20 Summit:

Highlights Progress on Tax, Failure to Halt Global Food Crisis

ActionAid today issued the following reactions at the conclusion of the G20 summit in Cannes,

France.

The G20 summit outcomes show progress on tax and banking secrecy but fall far short of what

is needed to resolve the world`s food crises, said Soren Ambrose, Head of Policy for ActionAid.

On Global Food Security

Mara Martins, Food Policy Adviser with ActionAid Brazil said:

With global food prices at record highs and promises of leadership from French President

Sarkozy, we had high hopes that G20 leaders would take bold action in Cannes to address global

food insecurity.

But aside from an endorsement of the West African emergency food reserve project, G20

leaders ducked serious action on global food security. The baton now passes to Mexico in 2012

to provide the bold leadership that G20 have failed to provide.

Every day nearly a billion go hungry or survive on one meal or less a day. But the G20 failed to

take the bold steps needed to curb hunger and food price volatility:

They endorsed the West African regional emergency food reserves pilot project, an

important step towards food security in the region. But the G20 has also continued to

refuse to even discuss the idea of the use of strategic buffer reserves, the most effective

tool governments could have to modulate price volatility. Several governments oppose

the idea because it could interfere with free markets; ActionAid maintains that

safeguarding the right to food must come first.

G20 leaders failed to address what the International Food Policy Research Institute

(IFPRI) has identified as the three key drivers of global food price volatility: EU/US

biofuels mandates; climate change induced extreme weather; and commodity

speculation.

o On biofuels, G20 leaders ignored the report they commissioned by 10 leading

international organizations, which called on governments to eliminate market

distorting biofuels mandates and incentives.

o On climate change, leaders broke no new ground. Neil Watkins, Director of Policy

and Campaigns at ActionAid USA said: The G20 stated that financing the fight

against climate change is one of their main priorities. Yet at every opportunity,

leaders have failed to agree on any mechanism that could generate sustainable

predictable public finance. With the critical Durban conference just weeks away,


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leaders should do what Bill Gates suggested in his report and support levies in

the heavily-polluting shipping and aviation industries and ensure a majority of

the proceeds go to help poor countries to confront climate change.

o On commodity speculation, the G20 endorses the use of position limits the

proportion of a given commodity any single investor may control. The

communiqu also endorses the use of position limits the proportion of a givencommodity any single investor may control. Depending on how this is

implemented, this could be a significant step in limiting food price volatility.

On Tax and Banking Secrecy:

Martin Hearson, ActionAids tax policy adviser, said: While the worlds attention has focused

on Greece, the G20 has quietly chipped away at the protective shell of financial secrecy, which

hurts developing and developed countries alike. The era of banking secrecy is still far from over,

but the movement towards that end is unmistakable.

The question now is whether this progress will continue next year, when Mexico is the G20

chair. The G20 must demonstrate it will use its political power to exert sustained pressure on tax

havens in the future, and throw its weight behind efforts to help developing countries crack

down on the tax dodging that undermines development.

Specifically, the G20 have:

- Committed to signing a convention on fighting tax evasion and urged tax havens to join

them.

- Received a report on the fight against tax havens that includes 11 jurisdictions on black

and grey lists.

- Recognised for the first time the impacts of tax dodging by multinational companies and

of tax havens on developing countries.

- Received expert reports with recommendations on how developing countries can fight

tax dodging and raise more tax revenue: one from the IMF, World Bank, OECD and UN,

one from the Global Forum on tax transparency, and one from Bill Gates on financing

for development.

However ActionAid believes the G20 has missed a chance to commit to greater transparency

for multinational companies.

Hearson said: Having commissioned three expert reports on tax and development, its sad that

the G20 has ignored so many of the key recommendations. In particular, the OECD, IMF and Bill

Gates all called on the G20 to commit to greater transparency for multinational companies, but

they failed to do so.

On the Financial Transactions Tax


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Martin Hearson, ActionAids tax policy adviser, said:

Bill Gates, one of the worlds most successful businessmen, supports the FTT. All G20 members

should be brave enough to do the same and pave the way for a tax which could help the

economies of both rich and poor countries and strengthen efforts to finance development and

climate adaptation.

ENDS ------------------------------------------------------------------

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