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HOPE for Africa bill
The full HOPE for Africa Act, including the critical debt cancellation
provisions, is now available on line, at
<http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c106:h.r.772:>.
Following below are the debt related provisions.
Robert Weissman
Essential Information | Internet: rob@essential.org
PART VI--CANCELLATION OF DEBT OWED TO THE UNITED
STATES BY SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN COUNTRIES.
`SEC. 901. CANCELLATION OF DEBT.
`(a) IN GENERAL- The President shall cancel all amounts owed to the
United States (or any agency of the
United States) by sub-Saharan African countries defined in section
603 of the Human Rights, Opportunity,
Partnership, and Empowerment for Africa Act as a result of--
`(1) concessional loans made or credits extended under any
provision of law, including the provisions
of law described in subsection (b)(1); and
`(2) nonconcessional loans made, guarantees issued, or
credits extended under any of provisions of
law, including the provisions of law described in subsection
(b)(2).
`(b) PROVISIONS OF LAW-
`(1) CONCESSIONAL PROVISIONS OF LAW- The provisions of law
described in this paragraph are
the following:
`(A) Part I of this Act, chapter 4 of part II of this
Act, or predecessor foreign economic
assistance legislation.
`(B) Title I of the Agricultural Trade Development and
Assistance Act of 1954 (7 U.S.C. 1701
et seq.).
`(2) NONCONCESSIONAL PROVISIONS OF LAW- The provisions of
law described in this
paragraph are the following:
`(A) Sections 221 and 222 of this Act.
`(B) The Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2751 et
seq.).
`(C) Section 5(f) of the Commodity Credit Corporation
Charter Act.
`(D)(i) Section 201 of the Agricultural Trade Act of
1978 (7 U.S.C. 5621).
`(ii) Section 202 of such Act (7 U.S.C. 5622).
`(E) The Export-Import Bank Act of 1945 (12 U.S.C. 635
et seq.).
`(c) TERMINATION OF AUTHORITY- The authority to cancel debt under
this section shall terminate on
September 30, 2002.
`SEC. 902. ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS.
`(a) REDUCTION OF DEBT NOT CONSIDERED TO BE ASSISTANCE- A reduction
of debt under section
901 shall not be considered to be assistance for purposes of any
provision of law limiting assistance to a
country.
`(b) INAPPLICABILITY OF CERTAIN PROHIBITIONS RELATING TO REDUCTION
OF DEBT- The
authority to provide for reduction of debt under section 901 may be
exercised notwithstanding section 620(r) of
this Act.
`SEC. 903. REPORTS TO THE CONGRESS.
`(a) IN GENERAL- Not later than December 31, 1999, and December 31
of each of the next 3 years, the
President shall prepare and transmit to the appropriate
congressional committees an annual report concerning the
cancellation of debt under section 901 for the prior fiscal year.
`(b) DEFINITION- In this section, the term `appropriate
congressional committees' means--
`(1) the Committee on Banking and Financial Services and the
Committee on International Relations of
the House of Representatives; and
`(2) the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate.
`SEC. 904. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
`For the cost (as defined in section 502(5) of the Federal Credit
Reform Act of 1990) for the cancellation of debt
under section 901, there are authorized to be appropriated to the
President such sums as may be necessary for
each of the fiscal years 2000 through 2002.'.
SEC. 103. ADVOCACY OF CANCELLATION OF DEBT OWED TO FOREIGN
GOVERNMENTS BY SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN COUNTRIES.
(a) ADVOCACY OF CANCELLATION OF DEBT- The Secretary of State shall
provide written notification to
each foreign government that has provided loans, guarantees, or
credits to the government of a sub-Saharan
African country (and such loans, guarantees, or credits are
outstanding) that it is the policy of the United States
to fully and unconditionally cancel all debts owed by each such
sub-Saharan African country to the United
States. In addition, the Secretary shall urge in writing each such
foreign government to follow the example of the
United States and fully and unconditionally cancel all debts owed
by sub-Saharan African countries to each such
foreign government.
(b) REPORT- Not later than 9 months after the
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall
prepare and submit to the Congress a report containing--
(1) a description of each written notification provided to
foreign governments under the first sentence of
subsection (a);
(2) a description of the response of each such foreign
government to such notification; and
(3) a description of the amount (if any) owed to the United
States by any foreign government opposing
the United States policy advocated pursuant to subsection
(a).
SEC. 104. ADVOCACY OF CANCELLATION OF DEBT OWED TO THE
INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND AND THE INTERNATIONAL BANK FOR
RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT BY SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN
COUNTRIES.
Title XVI of the International Financial Institutions Act (22
U.S.C. 262c-262p-5) is amended by redesignating
section 1622 as section 1623 and by inserting after section 1621
the following:
`SEC. 1622. ADVOCACY OF CANCELLATION OF DEBT OWED TO THE
INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND AND THE INTERNATIONAL BANK FOR
RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT BY SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN
COUNTRIES.
`(a) IN GENERAL- The Secretary of Treasury shall instruct the
United States Executive Directors at the
International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development to use the voice,
vote, and influence of the United States to advocate that their
respective institutions--
`(1) fully and unconditionally cancel all debts owed by any
country in sub-Saharan Africa (as defined in
section 603 of the Human Rights, Opportunity, Partnership,
and Empowerment for Africa Act) to such
institution; and
`(2) encourage each country benefiting from such debt
cancellation to allocate 20 percent of the national
budget of the country, including savings from such debt
cancellation, to basic services, as the country
has committed to do under the United Nations 20/20
Initiative, with appropriate input from civil society
in developing basic service plans.
`(b) ADVOCACY OF POLICY TO PREVENT SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN COUNTRIES
FROM PAYING
MORE THAN 5 PERCENT OF ANNUAL EXPORT EARNINGS FOR DEBT SERVICE ON
IMF OR
WORLD BANK LOANS- The Secretary of Treasury shall instruct the
United States Executive Directors at the
International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development, until their
respective institutions have fully and unconditionally canceled all
debts owed to such institutions by any country
in sub-Saharan Africa (within the meaning of subsection (a)(1)) to
use the voice, vote, and influence of the
United States to advocate that their respective institutions not be
party to, and that no future loan from their
respective institutions be used to finance in whole or part the
implementation of, any agreement which requires
the government of any such country, during any 12-month period
beginning on the date of the enactment of this
section or any anniversary of such date, to pay an amount exceeding
5 percent of the annual export earnings of
the country during the year toward the servicing of foreign loans.
`(c) ADVOCACY METHODS- The Secretary of Treasury shall instruct the
United States Executive Directors at
the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development to carry out
such instructions by all appropriate means, including by letter to
the country representative members governing
bodies of their respective institutions, and by requesting formal
votes on these matters.
`(d) REPORT- Within 1 year after the date of the enactment of this
section, the Secretary of the Treasury shall
submit to the Committees on International Relations and on Banking
and Financial Services of the House of
Representatives and the Committees on Foreign Relations of the
Senate a report that contains--
`(1) a description of the response by foreign governments to
the policies advocated pursuant to this
section;
`(2) the result of any votes taken pursuant to requests made under
subsection (c);
`(3) the amount (if any) owed to the United States by any
country opposing any such policy; and
`(4) a copy of the letter referred to in subsection (c).'.
SEC. 105. CANCELLATION OF DEBT OWED TO UNITED STATES LENDERS BY
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN COUNTRIES.
(a) REPORT- Not later than January 1, 2000, the Secretary of the
Treasury shall submit to the Congress a report
on the amount of debt owed to any United States person by any
country in sub-Saharan Africa. The report shall
specify the amount owed to each such person by each such country,
the face value and market value of the debt,
and the amount of interest paid to date on the debt.
(b) ACQUISITION OF THE DEBT BY THE UNITED STATES- Not later than
September 1, 2000, the
Secretary of the Treasury shall acquire each debt obligation owed
to any United States person by any country in
sub-Saharan Africa. It is the sense of the Congress that the price
at which such an obligation is acquired should
be the market value of the debt obligation as of January 1, 1999.
(c) DEBT CANCELLATION- On the acquisition of a debt obligation
pursuant to this section, the debt obligation
is hereby canceled.
SEC. 106. STUDY ON REPAYMENT OF DEBT IN LOCAL CURRENCIES BY
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN COUNTRIES.
Section 603 of the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and
Related Programs Appropriations Act, 1999 (as
contained in section 101(d) of division A of the Omnibus
Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental
Appropriations Act, 1999) is amended--
(1) in subsection (e)--
(A) by striking `and' at the end of paragraph (3);
(B) by redesignating paragraph (4) as paragraph (5);
and
(C) by inserting after paragraph (3) the following:
`(4) the viability and desirability of having each indebted
country in sub-Saharan Africa (as defined in
section 603 of the Human Rights, Opportunity, Partnership,
and Empowerment for Africa Act) repay
foreign loans made to the country (whether made bilaterally,
multilaterally, or privately) in the currency
of the indebted country; and'; and
(2) in subsection (g), by adding at the end the following:
`(6) The matters described in subsection (e)(4).'.
SEC. 107. ALLOCATION OF PERCENTAGE OF NATIONAL BUDGETS OF
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN COUNTRIES FOR BASIC SERVICES.
The Secretary of State shall encourage the government of each
sub-Saharan African country to allocate 20
percent of its national budget, including the savings from the
cancellation of debt owed by the country to the
United States (pursuant to part VI of the Foreign Assistance Act of
1961, as added by section 102 of this Act), to
other foreign countries (as called for in section 103 of this Act),
to the International Monetary Fund and the
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (as called
for in section 1622 of the International
Financial Institutions Act, as added by section 104 of this Act),
and to United States persons (as called for in
section 105 of this Act), for the provision of basic services to
individuals in each such country, as provided for
in the United Nations 20/20 Initiative. In providing such basic
services, each such government should seek input
from appropriate nongovernmental organizations.
SEC. 108. SENSE OF THE CONGRESS RELATING TO LEVEL OF INTERIM DEBT
PAYMENTS PRIOR TO FULL DEBT CANCELLATION BY SUB-SAHARAN
AFRICAN COUNTRIES.
It is the sense of the Congress that, prior to the full and
unconditional cancellation of all debts owed by
sub-Saharan African countries to the United States (pursuant to
part VI of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as
added by section 102 of this Act), to other foreign countries (as
called for in section 103 of this Act), and to
United States persons (as called for in section 105 of this Act),
each sub-Saharan African country should not, in
making debt payments described in the prior provisions of law, pay
in any calendar year an aggregate amount
greater than an amount equal to 5 percent of the export earnings of
the country for the prior calendar year.