Debt Relief: Another Tactic for Advancing Corporate Interests?

On Saturday and Sunday the corporate press was reporting that the G8 had agreed to forgive 40 million dollars of debt owed by the 18 of the poorest countries and the possiblility of debt reduction for an additional 20 countries. Campaigners focusing on debt relief welcomed the move and the press coverage was framed in a very positive manner. What was largely left out of the discussion in the mainstream press was the issue of what these poor countries would have to do to qualify for the debt relief. The Grand Rapids Press on Sunday ran an article from the Associated Press on the debt relief package which stated that countries would qualify as they met “strict targets for good government and tackled corruption.” This was pretty typical of the reporting nationwide, in which if there was any mention of the “strings attached” to the debt relief, it was described in very general and positive ways, as in the GR Press article.

Several articles over the last few days have pointed out that the ” attached strings” to this deal might not be so benign after all. The 18 countries already selected are all countries that have gone through a type of structural adjustment program called the “heavily indebted poor countries initiative” of the World Bank and I.M.F. The other 20 countries would have to complete similar programs of “economic reform” in order to receive debt relief, reforms that include measures such as privatization of public services, removal of subsidies, and cutting of budgets for social services. To quote Neil Watkins, National Coordinator of Jubilee USA Network in a recent interview on Democracy Now!:

Our message is clear that, though we think it’s an important first step that the G8 have agreed to 100% cancellation that it is completely, completely unacceptable to force these other 20 nations, and not to mention the nations beyond that that need debt cancellation, to go through these sorts of privatization projects in order to get their debt cancellation. These countries need debt cancellation now without conditions so that they can provide the services that their people need. In Africa, the HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to kill more than 2 million people every year. And we think all African nations need to see their debts fully canceled to be able to just begin to respond to that pandemic.

Related Posts:

1. EU Countries Seeking to Limit G8 Debt Relief
2. Universities Increasingly Beholden to Corporate Interests
3. CAFTA’s Debt Trap
4. CAFTA and AIDS
5. Debt, Deceit, and Death: How Vern Ehlers Misleads Citizens

Tags: globalization, media, national