Jacques Chirac’s latest stunt, an effort to combat African disease by piling another tax on air travelers, is classic Chirac. Starting in 2006, he wants to tack on a fee to the cost of airline tickets to and from France. The charge would be funneled into a fund to tackle diseases such as AIDS and tuberculosis in Africa. French officials call it a “solidarity levy.” Mr. Chirac wants to expand the tax worldwide, raising $12 billion a year.

It’s not at all clear that more money will help fight disease in the developing world. Consider but one way current aid money is spent: to pay taxes imposed on medicines by the developing countries themselves. As an American Enterprise Institute scholar, Roger Bate, has noted, Kenya imposes taxes and tariffs of 38% on many drugs, Nigeria 28%, and Uganda 31%.

Without addressing this problem, Mr. Chirac’s plan will merely subsidize governments that are essentially profiteering from foreign aid. A better start might be a step in favor of free trade. But for Mr. Chirac, “solidarity” apparently extends only as far as a marginal surcharge on airline tickets purchased mainly by people from other countries.