Break the Chains: E-action to John Swinney MSP

 

95% of the debt owed to the UK is owed to UK Export Finance (formerly the Export Credits Guarantee Department), a secretive Government department which exists to protect UK exporters from risks associated with non-payment for their services and products - to give them the confidence to invest overseas in high risk projects or locations.

When deals 'go bad', the exporter can expect payment through UKEF, with that money then being designated as debt owed to it by the developing country where the deal has failed, thus generating more poor country debt. This means that in many cases, developing countries are left paying debts for projects which did not benefit the country at all.

Of the £2.5 billion owed to the UK in loan repayments from developing countries, it is estimated that £2 billion is as a result of export deals 'going bad'.

3-7-2012

Break the Chains: * Dear Cabinet Secretary, I am writing to ask you to Break the Chains, by pledging that Scotland will cancel its share of unjust UK debt and commit to developing a responsible export credit agency. Most of the £2.5 billion debt owed to the UK is owed to a secretive government department called UK Export Finance (UKEF), who have underwritten loans to unelected regimes in countries such as Egypt, Indonesia and Sudan, and who are now collecting millions of pounds worth of debt repayments from peoples who never benefited from the loans in the first place. Please challenge these unjust debts by: ·Committing to a comprehensive audit of any UKEF debts inherited by Scotland, and the cancellation of any of these debts found to be unjust. ·Pledging that any Scottish export Credit Agency would be mandated to support sustainable and ethical overseas projects rather than being a generator of new unjust debts. I look forward to hearing your response. Yours sincerely,

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