The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #126642 Message #2815333
Posted By: Q (Frank Staplin)
18-Jan-10 - 06:22 PM
Thread Name: BS: Petition to end Haiti $890 million debt
Subject: RE: BS: Petition to end Haiti $890 million debt
Fuller information on the debt-
"On June 30th, Haiti reached "completion point" in the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries program cancelling $1.2 billion of debt." This means that $1.2 billion in external debt owed by the impoverished nation to bilateral and multilateral lenders including the IMF, World Bank, and US government has been cancelled....." (Discussion of loans to dictatorships, etc.) "Haiti was scheduled to send more than $20 million to the World Bank in 2009- other lenders like the International Development Bank (IDB) had agreed to write off Haiti's debt payments, but the World Bank did not. But on April 15, 2009, Sec....Hilary Clinton pledged $20 million to cover Haiti's remaining debt payments to the World Bank and the Inter American Development Bank." ..... "While $1.2 billion of Haiti's debt was cancelled in June 2009....," Tthe country still had $891 million owed for debts since 2004....owed to Inter American Development Bank, IMF, and bilateral debt owed to Venezuela and Taiwan.
The USA, with strong voting power in IMF and IDB.... should be urged to secure immediate cancellation.... of these debts.
It is highly likely that the bank debts will be cancelled, but the Jubilee petition is still worthwhile.
I believe that repayment over time to Venezuela is written into the agreement on the building of a refinery; the payments to come from the profits, but I could be wrong. (Data from www.jubileeusa.org)