G8 makes progress – but not enough

As tens of thousands of campaigners descended on the German city of Cologne, the G8 leaders announced an agreement to cancel $70 billion of foreign debt of the world's poorest countries.

The agreement is a result of a year of intense pressure applied by the Jubilee 2000 international movement active in more than 50 countries. It is a big advance beyond the $25 billion the G7 offered in Birmingham last year. It means up to $70 billion could be cut from the debt mountain of $370 billion owed by the 52 poorest countries. It marks the end of the first stage of this campaign. This issue is now one that the world's leaders cannot ignore – and they have at last begun to take action to deal with it.

However, many countries will be left with no reduction in debt service payments. This will mean that most countries will still pay more on debt than on health and education

Jurgen Kaiser, co-ordinator of Erlaßjahr 2000, said: “We welcome the progress that the G8 have made so far. But we in Germany are particularly aware that the G8 agreement means that the poorest countries will still pay more than three times as much as Germany had to pay after its debt relief in 1953 after the Second World War."

Ann Pettifor, director of Jubilee 2000 UK coalition said: " The G8 have made great strides since their meeting in Birmingham last year. If they continue at this pace, then we will achieve our goals in the year 2000. We congratulate the millions of people around the world who have made this happen. Some countries will have their debt payments significantly reduced. But many other poor countries gain nothing."

She went on to say:

"There have been two subjects on the G8 agenda: Kosovo and debt. Since the start of the Kosovan war, 800,000 children in the poorest countries will have died from easily preventable diseases. The agreement signed in Cologne by the G8 gives some children a chance but it does not give them a future. We want the children of Africa, Latin America and Asia to have a future just as the children of Germany were given a future in 1953 when Germany was given massive debt cancellation."

 

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