GORDON BROWN FACES UP TO WORLD DEBT

Debt campaigners from Lochgelly in Gordon Brown's constituency met with the Chancellor to hand over photos of supporters that they had collected as part of Jubilee Scotland's national 'Face up to World Debt' photo petition.
It was good timing. The weekend before Brown had been at the Finance Ministers Meeting in Washington putting forward his plan to provide more money for debt relief and to extend debt relief to war torn countries. It seems that debt will be high on the agenda at this year's G8 Summit meeting next week. We had 15 minutes with the Chancellor who responded to questions that the group had sent him in advance.

Question1
What is the time frame for canceling multilateral debt for the world's poorest countries?
This is being dealt with at the moment. Bilateral debt has largely been cancelled.
$70 million has been earmarked for cancellation the remaining $30 million, of the $100 million promised, is owed mainly by countries in conflict.
The HIPC Clause will be extended by the end of the year to include other countries such as Sudan etc. Sudan is currently in conflict but it is also very poor.
Most multilateral debt is owed to the World Bank trust fund. In the future most outstanding debt will be multilateral

Question 2
How will debt feature on the G8 agenda for 2005?
The International Finance Facility (IFF) is only one means of financing debt relief. We need to provide more money for debt relief. We must ask ourselves how we can move forward on writing off debt. Most debt is now owed to the development banks and multilateral institutions.

Question 3
Do you agree that debt relief needs to be free of damaging conditions that risk undoing the benefits? (especially unilateral trade liberalisation)
There are 2 issues here.
One is that it must be a condition that money freed by debt relief must be spent on anti-poverty measures such as health and education
Then there is the question of trade conditions.
Around $300 billion is spent on agricultural subsidies and the world only gives $50 billion in aid. We've got to change agricultural protectionism.

Poor countries need to trade with other countries.

We need to ask ourselves what are the conditions under which poor countries can trade with other countries.
Debt may be high on the agenda at this year's G8 Summit

Asked about debt sustainability.

We are looking at counties' debt sustainability but it is sometimes difficult to reach a consensus and get other countries to agree.
Writing in the Independent newspaper this week Brown states:

Just as with Live Aid in 1985, millions of campaigners for debt relief in 2000 demonstrated their belief in something bigger than themselves and showed that they felt, however distantly, the pain of others.
They not only deserved our praise and respect but demanded a response. By propelling governments into debt relief they showed that people are not powerless, but - acting together - can change the world.
So, too, next year can mark a new beginning: a worldwide campaign for justice on a global scale, a sea change in the way rich countries address the needs of the poor and an affirmation that, even amidst the tensions of globalisation, we are - as we should always have been - not a world permanently divided but one moral universe: today's rich and poor ready to act as one, recognising our shared needs, mutual interests and linked destinies.

It is vital to keep up our dialogue with the government. After a long period of quiet it seems to be all go on the debt front. Brown has said that when the UK hosts the G8 Summit in Scotland in 2005 it will be our chance to push for a fairer deal for the world's poorest countries. We'll be with him all the way.

June 2004