South Africa leads initiative to oppose European taxes on aviation

On 11 March 2011 at ITB in Berlin the South African Minister of Tourism released a Communique supported by his country, Australia, Kenya, New Zealand, the Seychelles, Singapore and the Caribbean Tourism Organisation criticising the impact that "unilateral, discriminatory" European aviation taxes are having on long-haul destinations. The Communique received little media coverage but points to concern from a wide range of Commonwealth countries.

This follows taxation changes made by the United Kingdom (see previous post), Germany (see previous post) and Austria (see previous post).

There are very few disputes between the United Kingdom and Australasia but this seems to be one of them. The UK's 2011 Budget due to be released on 23 March 2011 may be worth watching for any movement on this issue.