[stop-imf] Letters Calling for 100% Debt Cancellation

[robert weissman]

1. More than 30 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives
2. The US Catholic Conference of Bishops sent a letter.

HOUSE LETTER
September 21, 2004

President George W. Bush
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear President Bush:

We write to thank you for your recent support of debt cancellation for
heavily indebted poor countries.  Secretary Taylor's statements prior to
the G8 Conference in Sea Island, Georgia in support of increased debt
relief for these countries were very encouraging.  As the Administration
continues to press for the cancellation of Iraq's debt, which stood at
over $120 billion, we hope that you will continue to seek relief for the
debt imperiling the world's most impoverished countries.

However, we are concerned that more progress was not made on debt
cancellation during the G8 meeting.  We realize that there is some
international opposition to 100% debt cancellation, but we believe that
if the United States, along with its partners in Great Britain and other
willing countries, proposes a viable 100% cancellation policy for HIPCs
during the October 4-5, 2004 World Bank and International Monetary Fund
meetings, complete debt cancellation can become a reality in the near
future.  Beyond that, we urge you to support debt cancellation for other
debt-plagued countries like the Philippines and Nigeria, countries that
sorely need the relief that cancellation would provide.

When crafting a debt cancellation policy, we must assure that these
countries do not fall back into a cycle of indebtedness.  We very much
support the administration's advocacy that the majority of future World
Bank and IMF support to poor countries come in the form of grants
instead of loans.  We view debt relief as a form of retroactive grants;
that is, had the Administration's preferred policy of grants instead of
loans been in place long ago, these countries would have never reached
such dangerous levels of indebtedness.  The cancellation of debt and
further extension of grants should come without conditions imposing
private sector development, and a significant proportion of future
assistance to these countries should be directed towards supporting
public sector spending.

It has been estimated that if heavily indebted poor governments could
use funds spent on debt service for human development instead, at least
3 million more children would live beyond their 5th birthday and a
million cases of malnutrition would be avoided.  And the problem of debt
in poor countries not only threatens the well being of their people=97it
also threatens our own national security.  The poor and hungry are more
easily enticed by terrorists, and those without hope have more reason to
go to war.

We urge you to take the opportunity presented by the October World Bank
and IMF meetings to advocate the complete cancellation of the debt of
all severely indebted poor countries, including needy non-HIPCs.  We
believe cancellation of all multilateral debt is affordable,
particularly if we look at some further revaluation of IMF gold
holdings=97but the world can hardly afford not to cancel these debts.

We look forward to working closely with you as you advance this very
important issue.

Sincerely,
CHARLES RANGEL
JAMES A. LEACH
BARNEY FRANK
SPENCER BACHUS
BARBARA LEE
GREGORY W. MEEKS
ROSA DELAURO
FORTNEY PETE STARK
BERNARD SANDERS
RAUL GRIJALVA
JOSE SERRANO=09=09=09=09=09            ALBERT RUSSELL WYNN
DONNA M. CHRISTENSEN
SHEILA JACKSON-LEE
JOHN CONYERS JR.
CAROLYN MEEKS
KILPATRICK                                                  JULIA CARSON
EARL BLUMENAUER
MAJOR R. OWENS
BOBBY L. RUSH
JUANITA MILLENDER-MCDONALD
MELVIN L. WATT
CORRINE BROWN
EDOLPHUS TOWNS
ELIJAH CUMMINGS
WILLIAM LACY CLAY JR.
JOE HOEFFEL
DAVID SCOTT
DENISE MAJETTE
BETTY MCCOLLUM
JOHN W OLVER

USCCB LETTER

Secretary John Snow
Secretary of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 2022
=09=09=09=09=09=09=09=09September 20, 2004
Dear Secretary Snow:
=09As you prepare for the upcoming meeting of G-7 Finance Ministers in
Washington, I am writing on behalf of the United States Conference of
Catholic Bishops to urge you to support decisive action at this time to
complete the unfinished agenda concerning debt relief for the world=92s
poorest countries.
Prior to the meeting of G-8 leaders in Sea Island, Georgia, in June, I
wrote asking the leaders of the most powerful nations of the world to
develop concrete measures to strengthen the Heavily Indebted Poor
Countries (HIPC) program. While HIPC has provided important benefits to
a substantial number of countries, it has failed to achieve the promise
of a =93fresh start=94 for the poor. Current levels of debt repayment
coupled with a high degree of vulnerability to external shocks continue
to leave poor countries in danger of serious set-backs along the path to
poverty reduction and sustainable human development.
Thus, we are encouraged by consideration of proposals for 100%
cancellation of the debt of the HIPC countries to multilateral
creditors. At the same time, we understand that the multilateral
creditors may be expected to recover their losses from the cancellation
by reducing new lending to poor countries. This would mean that the debt
cancellation would provide no new resources for development. We would be
very concerned about such an outcome because, for us, debt cancellation
is not about adjusting accounts but about combating poverty.
Our support for debt cancellation stems from our moral obligation to
promote to the maximum the dignity of every human being, especially the
most vulnerable. This vision coincides with the Jubilee injunction of
Pope John Paul II to all the countries of the world to =93reduce
substantially, if not cancel outright, the international debt which
seriously threatens the future of many nations.=94
Our fellow bishops from Africa and Latin America remind us that debt
repayments are draining resources urgently needed for health, education,
water and other basic services. Deeper debt reduction is essential to
addressing this problem =96 but only if it provides additional resources
rather than coming at the expense of development aid. We would urge
that, instead of the poor countries, in effect, financing their own debt
relief, the debt cancellation be financed through additional resources
from the donor countries or from other sources, such as for example,
revaluation of IMF gold holdings.
We urge you to take the opportunity provided by the meeting of G-7
Finance Ministers to complete the unfinished agenda on debt relief in a
way that offers new hope to some of the world=92s poorest and most
forgotten people.

=09Sincerely yours,

Most Reverend John H. Ricard
Bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee
Chairman, Committee on International Policy
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops