[stop-imf] Members of Congress Call for Removal of IMF/WB Conditionalities in Mozambique (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

Congress of the United States
Washington, DC 20515

June 2, 2000

The Honorable William J. Clinton
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

As you are aware, the Congress is currently considering appropriations for
the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) trust fund to finance
multilateral debt relief through the IMF-World Bank HIPC initiative. At
the same time, the Congress is considering legislation which would
authorize the revaluation of IMF gold reserves to pay for the IMF's share
of multilateral debt relief agreed to last year in Cologne.

As you are also aware, many of us have grave concerns about the policies
pursued by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in poor
countries. In particular, we are disturbed by reports that the IMF and the
Bank continue to insist on irrelevant and destructive conditions for
agreements with poor countries - agreements necessary for these countries
to receive the debt relief that they have been promised.

Recent press reports indicate that the IMF is insisting that Mozambique
remove protection of the sugar industry in Mozambique. This has led major
investors in the sugar industry to threaten to pull out of the country
unless the government assures them that it will not cave in to the IMF's
demands.

This follows a similar case in which the World Bank forced the government
of Mozambique to remove protections for its cashew nut processing
industry. The World Bank was subsequently forced to admit its error and
partially reverse its policy, but not before the cashew nut processing
factories were forced to close.

IMF and World Bank policies are supposed to contribute to a "stable
macroeconomic policy environment." In Mozambique they are doing precisely
the opposite, punishing companies which invest in the country with sudden
reversals of economic policy demanded by the IMF and the World Bank.

We urge you to strongly encourage the IMF and the World Bank to remove any
conditions on the cashew nut processing industry and the sugar industry
from their negotiations with Mozambique, so that debt relief for
Mozambique will not be delayed by irrelevant and inappropriate
conditionalities, and so that Congressional support for financing
multilateral debt relief will not be undermined.

Sincerely,

Cynthia McKinney, M.C.
Dennis Kucinich, M.C.
Bernie Sanders, M.C.
Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, M.C.
Danny Davis, M.C.
Sheila Jackson-Lee, M.C.
Peter DeFazio, M.C.
Gregory Meeks, M.C.
Julia Carson, M.C.
Corrine Brown, M.C.
William Jefferson, M.C.
Edolphus Towns, M.C.


Cc: Horst K=F6hler, IMF Managing Director
James Wolfensohn, President, World Bank Group