Given the current economic recession, one might think this an inopportune time to suggest a new tax. I write, however, to outline a proposal that I have been exploring for nearly a decade. If the reader will consider placing it on his or her long-term agenda, I will be pleased.

Although large-scale conflicts seem to have gone the way of the Cold War, violent regional disputes remain. Indeed, new religiously and ethnically based wars erupt regularly. These wars create huge numbers of refugees, and with the refugees come famine, epidemics, and widespread mental and physical suffering -- all in tragic proportions.

The economically advanced countries have not been indifferent to the plight of these victims. Both money and personnel have been contributed in substantial amounts. The governments of these countries have, however, targeted their aid in general to infrastructural development. Famine and medical relief have been left to groups like UNICEF and private relief organizations. In turn, these groups have faced chronic cash shortages.

To mitigate this shortage of relief funds, I propose a personal consumption tax on international airfare. The revenues raised would go into an international fund dedicated to the relief of disaster victims. Currently, countries with a consumption tax impose it only on domestic consumption items. Should a product subject to the tax leave the country, the government refunds any taxes already collected. That refund follows, of course, from the very nature of the consumption tax. As a corollary, almost all these governments tax domestic but not international airfare. Unfortunately, this policy violates tax neutrality by skewing consumer choice away from domestic travel or other consumption. Importantly, for our rapidly internationalizing age, my proposal would reduce that tax non- neutrality. The writer thinks that there is no limitation on the tax jurisdiction of a sovereign country to impose a consumption tax on international air travel as long as the ticket is purchased in its jurisdiction.

A low tax rate would raise significant revenue. International air travel is a rapidly growing industry. Firms seem to add new routes monthly and new flights on existing routes daily. According to the statistics of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), total revenue from passengers of scheduled airlines of ICAO contracting states has been rapidly and drastically increasing and amounted to over US $200 billion in 1996. Though the revenue from personal passengers and that of business passengers are not distinguished in the statistics, it could be assumed that the former must also have been drastically increasing and has now reached a tremendously large amount. Therefore, as mentioned above, a modest tax on this base could also raise a correspondingly large amount of revenue. To use this revenue to help the victims of international disputes (perhaps for the removal of land mines as well) would be an important humanistic act. Most passengers would be glad to donate some money in the form of a consumption tax for people in misery.

Implementing this proposal raises a wide variety of difficulties. Countries will need to cooperate in adopting the necessary legislation and appropriate and efficient administrative arrangements.

Global humanitarian problems urgently require a new approach. Wars and famines show no sign of disappearing. Ethnic and religious divisions run deep, and the accompanying disputes touch long-held prejudices. In many ways, the famines in parts of Africa and Asia seem just as intractable.

Granted, this will not be an easy proposal to realize. The problems it addresses, however, cry out for an immediate humane response.

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Hiroshi Kaneko is a professor of law at Gakushuin University and professor emeritus at Tokyo University. He is grateful to Professor Oliver Oldman, professor emeritus of Harvard Law School, for his assistance in the publication of this article. The writer is also grateful to Professor J. Mark Ramseyer of Harvard Law School for his assistance in translating this article, which was first published in Japanese, and is now revised and published in English.

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Proposal for International Humanitarian Tax -- A Consumption Tax on International Air Travel