Canada's representatives at IMF agree to suspend G7 debt relief plan for six

Montreal - 16 Dec. 2005 - Next Wednesday, Dec. 21, the IMF Board of Directors will consider a proposal by staff to delay the G7 debt relief plan for one-third of the eligible countries.

Information about the pending decision was leaked to a US NGO, and confirmed by the office of the Canadian Executive Director at the IMF in Washington.

A spokesperson for the Canadian office said that the office will support the IMF staff proposal. The Social Justice Committee has not yet received a comment from the Prime Minister

There are three concerns:

the delay itself, for six countries, Senegal, Madagascar, Rwanda, Mauritania, Ethiopia and Nicaragua, which is indefinite. The other twelve countries in the program are expected to get their relief in early January.
the conditions. The six countries affected will have to meet new standards of IMF-directed fiscal and monetary policy, despite the G7 direction that this cancellation be without additional conditionality.
IMF reasserting its control of countries economies. These six countries are now, or will be by the end of the month, without an IMF program. The IMF is only allowing relief to proceed for countries with a binding agreement in place. Guyana apparently escapes being on the delay list by a few months - its program expires later in the year,

" The IMF bureaucrats seem to be out to show they needn't heed public desire for Third World debt relief, let alone the G7," said Derek MacCuish, coordinator of the Social Justice Committee.

But the question remains - given Prime Minister Martin's intense interest in Third World debt relief, why is the Canadian government supporting this derailing of the G7 plan?

The Social Justice Committee joins other debt campaign organizations around the world in asking that the IMF Board reject the staff proposal, and that it provide the 100% cancellation for all 18 countries as promised and accelerate unconditional debt relief for other impoverished countries.

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