This is from the Preamble Center. It summarizes the most aggressive debt cancellation bill now moving in Congress, the Saxton-Kucinich bill. Robert Weissman Essential Information | Internet: rob@essential.org ACTION ALERT: ASK YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TO CO-SPONSOR THE "SAXTON-KUCINICH BILL": HR 2939, the Debt Relief and IMF Reform Act of 1999 Congressional Switchboard: 202-225-3121 HR 2939 cancels 100 percent of the IMF debts of the world's poorest and most indebted countries: those considered "Heavily Indebted Poor Countries" by the World Bank, plus Haiti. HR 2939 cancels the debt WITHOUT harsh IMF policies, thereby freeing those countries from compulsory structural adjustment policies demanded by the IMF. The cost to US taxpayers would be nothing. HR 2939 significantly reforms the IMF by increasing its openness and limiting its expansion. Cancels 100 percent of the debt Since the US Congress cannot directly legislate policy at the IMF, HR 2939 aggressively pursues the goal of debt cancellation by three means. First, the bill prohibits further Congressional appropriations to the IMF until the debts of the HIPC countries plus Haiti to the IMF are canceled. Second, the bill mandates the US director of the IMF to use every means to cancel the IMF debts of the HIPC countries and Haiti. Third, the bill requires that the debts of the HIPC countries plus Haiti be canceled before the IMF may sell a portion of its gold reserves. The Administration's debt relief proposal would cancel a much smaller amount of debt, thereby keeping those countries trapped in debt, and uses taxpayer funds to do this. Cancels debt WITHOUT imposing harsh IMF policies HR 2939 does not place harsh IMF conditions for debt cancellation on the HIPC countries and Haiti. Other debt relief plans require that the countries implement painful structural adjustment policies in order to be eligible for debt relief. The Administration requires that countries continue to follow IMF structural adjustment policies. The money for the debt cancellation in HR 2939 is found in the IMF's Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility, the IMF's program for imposing structural adjustment on poor countries. Existing accounts within the ESAF have adequate funds in order to write off the IMF debt of the HIPC countries and Haiti. The Administration's debt relief plan requires that US taxpayers contribute several hundred million dollars more to the IMF. Reforms the IMF HR 2939 increases transparency at the IMF by requiring that the IMF publish its operational budget, together with public financial statements, in a fully transparent manner. HR 2939 also reforms the IMF by closing ESAF and ending the IMF's role in directing government budget and social policy in the world's poorest countries. What do the poorest countries say? HR 2939's approach to debt cancellation has been endorsed Jubilee South, the organization representing Jubilee debt cancellation campaigns in developing countries. Countries represented in Jubilee South include: Angola, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe in Africa; Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela in Latin America and the Caribbean; and the Philippines. About HR 2939, Jubilee South has written: "Jubilee South and the member Jubilee 2000 campaigns in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin American and the Caribbean... support your effort to delink debt cancellation from the required implementation of [IMF] structural adjustment programs." About the Administration's plan, these countries have written: "we reject those initiatives that condition debt relief on the adoption by our governments of IMF and Bank policies." For more information, contact Robert Naiman at the Preamble Center, 202-265-3263 x277
saxton kucinich fact sheet.doc
------------------------------- Robert Naiman <naimanr@preamble.org> Preamble Center 1737 21st NW Washington, DC 20009 phone: 202-265-3263 x277 fax: 202-265-3647 http://www.preamble.org/ -------------------------------