Tax mad French aim for 300 percent tax hike for... chocolate spread

It's a nutty world of tax and spend in France. But this takes the biscuit

by Robin Shepherd

According to OECD figures, French government spending as a percentage of GDP is a whopping 56 percent. Just quote that figure to anyone who tells you we live in a neo-liberal, free-market capitalist world (the average in OECD countries is 46 percent, by the way).

Well, if you're going to bomb and strafe your people out of their hard earned money, it has to come from somewhere. So why not hit the poor beleaguered French family where it really hurts them, right there in the famous French kitchen.

According to France 24, the latest piece of dirigisme comes in the form of an attempt to hike taxes by 300 percent (!) on a key ingredient in the all too delicious Nutella hazlenut chocolate spread (no, they haven't paid us to say that, but donations would be very welcome).  

France 24 reports that:

"The bill, which was adopted by a Senate commission and heads to the National Assembly this week for review, has been dubbed by French media as the “Nutella tax”. Upon careful inspection of the spread’s ingredients, it turns out that roughly 20 percent of the product is made of palm oil, which is known to be high in saturated fats and can potentially cause heart disease.

"The widespread use of palm oil has also been criticised for leading to deforestation in countries like Indonesia and Malaysia."

Blah, blah, blah... any excuse for the nanny state to get its teeth (no pun intended) into every last corner of society to satisfy its rapacious appetite (again, no pun intended) for ever more private money. 

The report ruefully notes that, "the 'Nutella tax' could potentially have far-reaching consequences on the fate of French pastries and other processed foods, which are in part so delicious because they are filled with saturated fats such as… palm oil... France reportedly consumes around 130,000 tonnes of palm oil per year, or the equivalent of two kilos per inhabitant."

I like French food, and I like the French. But if there was ever a time for a new revolution in the Fifth Republic, surely this is it. I'm not sure whether the Paris Chocolate Spread Party has the same ring to it as the Boston Tea Party.

But the way the Western world is heading on tax and spend, I'd welcome it with open arms. Now, where's my baguette and my pot of Nutella?