skunk
Apr 17, 2005, 11:45 AM
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=XS5JCD2EION0YCRBAEOCFFA?type=businessNews&storyID=8202137
G7 Fails to Reach Deal on Debt Relief
Sat Apr 16, 2005 10:06 PM ET
By Sumeet Desai
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The world's richest nations failed once again on Saturday to agree on how to free Africa from debt and poverty.
Aid advocates had wanted the wealthy countries to make good on their pledge to help rid the world's poorest countries of their crippling debt, but finance ministers at a meeting of the Group of Seven major economic powers could not decide on the best way to pay for this.
"How many children have to die before these seven men in suits develop a sense of urgency?" said Jonathan Hepburn, policy adviser for Oxfam International.
British finance minister Gordon Brown, who has made easing Africa's plight a personal crusade, predicted an agreement by the time Group of Seven leaders meet in Gleneagles, Scotland in July.
"Everyone accepted there must be more money for debt relief," Brown told a news conference after the Washington meeting. "We believe that will come at Gleneagles."
The group's final statement on Saturday went no further than thanking the International Monetary Fund for a study on how its gold reserves could be used to help fund a total debt write-off and promising more discussion.
"There was complete silence from the G7 on the sale of IMF gold. Yet the IMF has clearly said the gold can be sold to help cancel poor countries' debt," Oxfam's Hepburn said.
The IMF said a sale of about 13 million to 16 million ounces of its 103.4 million ounces of gold could be handled by the market without significant difficulty.
Brown denied the plan had been abandoned.
YEAR OF AFRICA
Britain, the current holder of the G7 presidency, has declared 2005 a make-or-break year for Africa, and Brown broke off from election campaigning at home to press his colleagues in the group to back his gold-sales plan.
But the United States is opposed. U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said it was the wrong approach.
Canadian Finance Minister Ralph Goodale told Reuters in an interview on Friday, "Whatever the merit of the argument might be, it's not going to pass."
Nor does President Bush's administration back Brown's other idea -- a program called an International Finance Facility that would double cash for developing countries by issuing bonds against rich countries' future-aid budgets.
The G7 statement simply said ministers had discussed a pilot of the program, currently being run to raise money for immunization of African children.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who has endorsed the lending facility, told the financial leaders more commitment was needed to increase aid to poor countries and ease their debts.
"The coming months offer us a unique opportunity to make real changes in the international system -- changes that can make the world freer, fairer and safer for all its inhabitants," he said at a closed-door dinner, according to a copy of the speech given to reporters.
Annan hopes to make progress on aid to poor nations for U.N. poverty summit in September.
Delays could be risky, said Anna Taylor, an official with Save the Children. "The politicians are cutting it very fine -- 2005 has the potential to be a breakthrough year, and for nothing to have happened yet smacks of dangerous brinkmanship," she said.
"If all we get from the (wealthy nations) is piecemeal debt packages and re-announcement of existing aid commitments, the world can be rightfully angry at the failure of its leaders to make child-poverty history."Could it be that the US sees third world indebtedness as a geo-political tool? After all, they can't very well agree to let all the good work of those "Economic Hitmen" go to waste, can they? What a disgrace! If they were really interested in "defeating terrorism", they would agree to this cancellation of the debt they have conspired to cripple these countries' economies with.
G7 Fails to Reach Deal on Debt Relief
Sat Apr 16, 2005 10:06 PM ET
By Sumeet Desai
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The world's richest nations failed once again on Saturday to agree on how to free Africa from debt and poverty.
Aid advocates had wanted the wealthy countries to make good on their pledge to help rid the world's poorest countries of their crippling debt, but finance ministers at a meeting of the Group of Seven major economic powers could not decide on the best way to pay for this.
"How many children have to die before these seven men in suits develop a sense of urgency?" said Jonathan Hepburn, policy adviser for Oxfam International.
British finance minister Gordon Brown, who has made easing Africa's plight a personal crusade, predicted an agreement by the time Group of Seven leaders meet in Gleneagles, Scotland in July.
"Everyone accepted there must be more money for debt relief," Brown told a news conference after the Washington meeting. "We believe that will come at Gleneagles."
The group's final statement on Saturday went no further than thanking the International Monetary Fund for a study on how its gold reserves could be used to help fund a total debt write-off and promising more discussion.
"There was complete silence from the G7 on the sale of IMF gold. Yet the IMF has clearly said the gold can be sold to help cancel poor countries' debt," Oxfam's Hepburn said.
The IMF said a sale of about 13 million to 16 million ounces of its 103.4 million ounces of gold could be handled by the market without significant difficulty.
Brown denied the plan had been abandoned.
YEAR OF AFRICA
Britain, the current holder of the G7 presidency, has declared 2005 a make-or-break year for Africa, and Brown broke off from election campaigning at home to press his colleagues in the group to back his gold-sales plan.
But the United States is opposed. U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said it was the wrong approach.
Canadian Finance Minister Ralph Goodale told Reuters in an interview on Friday, "Whatever the merit of the argument might be, it's not going to pass."
Nor does President Bush's administration back Brown's other idea -- a program called an International Finance Facility that would double cash for developing countries by issuing bonds against rich countries' future-aid budgets.
The G7 statement simply said ministers had discussed a pilot of the program, currently being run to raise money for immunization of African children.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who has endorsed the lending facility, told the financial leaders more commitment was needed to increase aid to poor countries and ease their debts.
"The coming months offer us a unique opportunity to make real changes in the international system -- changes that can make the world freer, fairer and safer for all its inhabitants," he said at a closed-door dinner, according to a copy of the speech given to reporters.
Annan hopes to make progress on aid to poor nations for U.N. poverty summit in September.
Delays could be risky, said Anna Taylor, an official with Save the Children. "The politicians are cutting it very fine -- 2005 has the potential to be a breakthrough year, and for nothing to have happened yet smacks of dangerous brinkmanship," she said.
"If all we get from the (wealthy nations) is piecemeal debt packages and re-announcement of existing aid commitments, the world can be rightfully angry at the failure of its leaders to make child-poverty history."Could it be that the US sees third world indebtedness as a geo-political tool? After all, they can't very well agree to let all the good work of those "Economic Hitmen" go to waste, can they? What a disgrace! If they were really interested in "defeating terrorism", they would agree to this cancellation of the debt they have conspired to cripple these countries' economies with.
