ALERT: Support New Debt/IMF Legislation! (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

ALERT:  CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE!

TELL THEM TO CO-SPONSOR A BILL CANCELLING:
(1) IMPOVERISHED COUNTRIES' DEBT & (2) IMF STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT


Good News!  Very Good News!  Rep. Cynthia McKinney of Georgia will next
Thursday (June 10) be introducing an excellent piece of legislation designed
to do two things:  (1) cancel debts owed by the world's most impoverished
countries; and (2) get the IMF out of structural adjustment lending to
impoverished countries.

The impact of these two measures would be the freeing up of resources which
could be devoted to improving the lot of some of the world's most
impoverished and underserved people and eliminating from their countries the
leading institutional enforcer of the stringent economic policies that have
afflicted most Southern countries for the past 20 years.

Rep. McKinney wants to announce this legislation in advance of a meeting of
the Finance Ministers from the G-7 countries set for Saturday, June 12 in
Frankfurt, Germany.  That meeting precedes by a week the G-7 Summit of heads
of government in Cologne, Germany.  We expect that the Finance Ministers
will be discussing their various debt relief proposals as they begin to
merge them into a single plan the Summit can agree on.

Rep. McKinney's legislation, which is called the Jubilee Debt Cancellation
Act of 1999 in honor of the powerful international Jubilee 2000 movement,
needs co-sponsors!  She would like to announce the bill at a press
conference on Thursday morning with the support of a good group of her
fellow Representatives.

**Please call your Representative and urge him or her to sign on as an
"original cosponsor" of Rep. McKinney's Jubilee Debt Cancellation Act of
1999.**  Below is a summary of the bill, which you can use as a source of
talking points in speaking with your Representative's staffer who deals with
international finance.  (If you would like the text of the bill, please
contact us.)  You can call the Capitol switchboard at 202/224-3121 to be
connected directly to your Representative's office.  Please tell the
staffers you speak with to contact Merwyn Scott in Rep. McKinney's office
(202/225-1605) to sign on as a sponsor.  Emphasize the urgency of making a
decision by June 10 in light of the upcoming G-7 Summit.

For further information, call Soren Ambrose at 50 Years Is Enough / Alliance
for Global Justice (202/544-9355; <soren@igc.org>) or Bob Naiman at the
Preamble Center (202/265-3263 x277; <naimanr@preamble.org>).


*Summary of the Main Provisions of Rep. McKinney's Jubilee Debt Cancellation
Act of 1999*

* Applies to the 41 countries designated by the World Bank and IMF as
heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs) plus Haiti.  Would exclude any
country where an "elected head of government is deposed by military coup or
decree, unless the President determines that a democratically elected
government has taken office."

* Cancels bilateral debts owed to the U.S. by these countries resulting from
concessional and noncessional loans, as well as guarantees and credits.

* Denies U.S. funding to the IMF until:  (1) it has canceled all debts in
the same categories owed it by the HIPCs; (2) it has terminated its Enhanced
Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF); and (3) the Treasury Department
certifies that it is making no more structural adjustment loans, under any
name, to HIPCs.

* Encourages HIPC governments to apply the resulting savings to poverty
reduction by restricting further benefits from the U.S.'s export credit
agency, the Overseas Private Investment Corp. (OPIC), to HIPCs and projects
in HIPCs where the President certifies that the funds made available by the
cancellation of debts called for by the legislation have been used for
poverty reduction.

* Allows U.S. citizens legal standing to sue to ensure enforcement of the
bill's mandates.  This provision is included because of the IMF's long
record of evading Congressional demands.