Kyoto taxes our competitiveness

Media release 4 July 2003

Kyoto taxes our competitiveness

Taxing rural small businesses for the atmospheric emissions of their ruminants sends curious signals, says Business NZ.

Chief Executive Simon Carlaw says the widespread anger expressed by farmers at the flatulence tax is wholly justifiable given the importance of encouraging our globally competitive agribusiness and the irrelevance of the Kyoto Protocol.

"The fiction that Kyoto matters or that New Zealand alone could shoulder the responsibility for the whole southern hemisphere as the only country south of the equator to ratify the Protocol is being exposed on a daily basis.

"There is, justifiably, widespread amazement overseas at the flatulence tax. 'Clean, green but mad' is not a label that will foster New Zealand's reputation for high quality added value exports.

"The flatulence tax is yet another of the recent charges levied on business that will inhibit, not encourage, the Government's own growth targets."

ENDS

© Scoop Media