Andy Hoffman
Beijing, Toronto,WashingtonOttawa — Globe and Mail UpdatePublished on Wednesday, May. 19, 2010 6:59PM EDTLast updated on Wednesday, May. 19, 2010 7:03PM EDT
China is supportive of Canada’s efforts to quash plans for a global bank tax and could prove a key ally in talks on the controversial measure at the Group of 20 summit in Toronto next month, according to Treasury Board president Stockwell Day.
Mr. Day met with Bai Lichen, vice-chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, in Beijing Wednesday and discussed Canada’s opposition to the plan to impose a levy on financial institutions after a series of government funded bank bailouts during the globalfinancial crisis
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Mr. Bai “certainly shared my view when I said that Canadian banks should not pay a penalty for something they did not take part in. That was his view about their system,” Mr. Day said in Beijing Wednesday.
Canada’s government launched a global offensive this week against the bank tax. Europe and the United States support the idea, hoping to extract some of the government money that banks were given to avoid collapse during the financial meltdown in 2008 and 2009.
“We’re entitled to disagree with them when they’ve got it wrong,” said former deputy prime minister and former finance minister John Manley, who is currently the head of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives. Mr. Manley is also on the board of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.
While he strongly opposes the tax, he also noted that Canada could risk alienating other countries if there is broad consensus in favour of the tax.
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