NEW YORK, June 3 (UPI) -- France and 13 other countries have agreed to impose a new tax on airline passengers to pay for anti-AIDS drugs for the poor.
The tax is expected to raise $258.3 million a year, The Los Angeles Times reported. France has already decided on a tax of one to 4 euros ($1.30 to $5.20) in economy class and 10 times that in first class and business class, and plans to begin collecting the levy on July 1.
At an international conference on AIDS, Brazil, Chile, Cyprus, Congo, France, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Norway and Britain signed on. The United States does not agree with the tax.
The United Nations estimates that aid for prevention education and drugs, especially to the African countries hardest hit by the epidemic, will cost $20 billion a year by 2010.
