1. can­cel imme­di­ately and com­pletely all debts owed by Haiti to these institutions;
2. sus­pend Haiti’s debt ser­vice pay­ments to the insti­tu­tions until such time as the debts are can­celed com­pletely; and
3. pro­vide addi­tional assis­tance to Haiti in the form of grants so that Haiti does not accu­mu­late addi­tional debts.

The United States has called on the IMF to can­cel Haiti’s debt to the IMF using the institution’s own inter­nal resources, and H.R. 4573 directs the Sec­re­tary of the Trea­sury to instruct the IMF’s US exec­u­tive direc­tor to advo­cate the use of some of the real­ized wind­fall prof­its from the sale of IMF gold, which was autho­rized by Con­gress last year, to pro­vide debt stock relief, debt ser­vice relief and grants for Haiti.  The mea­sure also calls upon the Admin­is­tra­tion to use all appro­pri­ate diplo­matic influ­ence to secure com­plete can­cel­la­tion of any remain­ing bilat­eral, mul­ti­lat­eral and pri­vate cred­i­tor debt owed by Haiti.

“The coun­try of Haiti is engaged in a mas­sive recov­ery process and can­not bear the finan­cial bur­den of its exist­ing debt oblig­a­tions. Today, I held a Sub­com­mit­tee hear­ing to dis­cuss the process of bilat­eral and mul­ti­lat­eral debt relief for Haiti to bring about long term eco­nomic recov­ery. I look for­ward to con­tin­u­ing to work in a bipar­ti­san man­ner to assist the peo­ple of Haiti in their time of great­est need,” stated Con­gress­man Gre­gory Meeks (D-NY), Chair­man of the Sub­com­mit­tee on Inter­na­tional Mon­e­tary Pol­icy and Trade.

“Haiti faces enor­mous chal­lenges now, and the bur­den of pay­ing off for­eign debt would pre­vent the nation from tak­ing nec­es­sary steps to help its peo­ple at this per­ilous time.  I intro­duced H.R. 4573 so that Haiti can use its lim­ited resources to make both imme­di­ate and long-term invest­ments in essen­tial human­i­tar­ian relief, recon­struc­tion and devel­op­ment efforts,” said Con­gress­woman Waters.

“The moral case for can­cel­ing Haiti’s debt is clear,” said Bar­ney Frank (D-MA), Chair­man of the House Com­mit­tee on Finan­cial Ser­vices, “and the Com­mit­tee stands pre­pared to con­tinue to work with the Admin­is­tra­tion to autho­rize a swift and sub­stan­tial U.S. com­mit­ment to com­pre­hen­sive mul­ti­lat­eral debt can­cel­la­tion for Haiti.”

Haiti, the poor­est coun­try in the West­ern Hemi­sphere, owes $828 mil­lion to mul­ti­lat­eral devel­op­ment insti­tu­tions accord­ing to the U.S. Depart­ment of the Trea­sury.  This includes $447 mil­lion to the IDB, $284 mil­lion to the IMF, $39 mil­lion to the World Bank, and $58 mil­lion to the Inter­na­tional Fund for Agri­cul­tural Development.

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