Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-12-13-Speech-3-184"
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"en.20001213.7.3-184"2
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"Mr President, I would like to thank the rapporteur for his speedy work on this report on VAT and e-commerce. I think the comments I have heard around the floor today would almost suggest that we do not need this kind of report, but of course we do. It is tempting for us always to compare ourselves with the USA and to say that because they cannot find a satisfactory solution, we should not either. But the fact is that VAT on goods and services applies across the European Union. This is a tax which already exists. It is not a new tax and it should be applied. It should be applied to the Internet at well. Otherwise, what would happen? Well of course the issue of unfair competition has already been mentioned. Why should the retail industry be so badly affected and be made to suffer in order for another industry to grow? If indeed it can be affected that way by what the proposal suggests, and I doubt that.
Furthermore, this proposal is in line, as I see it, with the principles agreed at Ecofin, which in turn are in line with the agreed principles of the OECD Conference in Ottawa. The source where the tax should apply is a matter of concern, and the discussion around the number of countries which would qualify to have companies registered in them is something which I believe will be burdensome and of course provoke the USA to a complaint in the WTO. But I do not believe that e-commerce is going to be crushed by VAT being suddenly applied like some evil giant. I think that the real problem is that EU retail industries will continue to suffer the disadvantages that they are currently suffering.
It is amusing to hear some of the comments being made around this Chamber today but it is quite clearly also amusing to remember that the kind of cashless society that perhaps the likes of Trotters Independent Trading Company in the UK were involved in is the kind of society that is being advocated by some over on the other side of the House. Are we going to end up with that kind of cashless society, with cowboy e-commerce outfits being able to do what they want? I do not think so. That is not how we are meant to organise society, and that is why I think this proposal is an excellent one."@en1
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