[stop-imf] US House votes to de-fund MIGA (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

From=20Soren Ambrose, of 50 Years is Enough:

On Tuesday, July 24, the U.S. House of Representatives approved an
amendment to a spending bill which cuts the entire appropriation requested
for the World Bank Group's Multilateral Investment Guaranty Agency (MIGA),
the branch of the Bank that offers "political risk insurance" to
corporations, ostensibly to give them extra incentive to invest in
Southern countries.  The money originally allocated to MIGA would instead
go to programs for combatting tuberculosis.

An alert on this legislation was posted to the 50 Years Is Enough list,
and the calls generated by it and by RESULTS and Friends of the Earth were
key in this victory.

This is a real milestone. MIGA is arguably the most blatantly
corporate-oriented part of the Bank, harder to defend even than the
private-sector investment division, the International Finance Corp (IFC).
MIGA uses taxpayers=92 funds to offer guarantees to multinational
corporations that their business in a Southern country will not be
affected by changes in government policy (and if it is, they will be
compensated).

The cutting of the U.S. appropriation is not yet U.S. law.  It must first
survive the secretive "conference committee" that reconciles legislation
passed by the House with corresponding legislation passed by the Senate,
and then be signed by the President. We are, however, reasonably sure that
there are few legislators interested in mounting a spirited campaign on
behalf of MIGA, and there are Senators interested in making sure this
provision remains in the final version.

In the same amendment, a portion ($10 million) of the requested
appropriation for the Asian Development Fund, the low-interest loan
facility of the Asian Development Bank was likewise shifted to
tuberculosis treatment.  While this money will be a big help for the TB
effort, its effect on the ADF is mostly symbolic -- an indication that
Congress is aware that the ADF and ADB, despite their talk of being
dedicated to combatting poverty, are actually directing a scandalously
small percentage of their funds to that effort.

Thanks to all who helped in creating what may well be the beginning of the
end of MIGA (once the US pulls funding for a multilateral agency, other
countries often become more reluctant to fund it).

Soren Ambrose
50 Years Is Enough Network
Washington DC USA


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