Jamaica Observer

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/haiti-s-debt-cancelled

WASHINGTON, USA — The United States House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives has unan­i­mously passed a bill call­ing for the can­cel­la­tion of Haiti’s debt in the wake of the cat­a­strophic Jan­u­ary 12 earthquake.

The mea­sure orders US rep­re­sen­ta­tives to the Washington-based Inter­na­tional Mon­e­tary Fund (IMF) and other lend­ing agen­cies to take action to can­cel the Cari­com country’s debt obligations.

It is expected to be signed into law shortly by Pres­i­dent Barack Obama.

The bill, known as the Haiti Recov­ery Act, also urges that prospec­tive aid to the French-speaking nation be in the form of grants, rather than loans.

In addi­tion, it calls on the US gov­ern­ment to sup­port the for­ma­tion of an inter­na­tional trust fund to aid in infra­struc­tural devel­op­ment in Haiti.

“There are many of us who look at this earth­quake as oppor­tu­nity,” said Max­ine Waters, a Demo­c­ra­tic con­gress­woman, who spon­sored the bill.

“We believe that there is now a real com­mit­ment by the world com­mu­nity to come to the aid of Haiti,” she added.

Ear­lier, the US Sen­ate had also unan­i­mously passed a res­o­lu­tion sup­port­ing calls for Haiti debt relief.

“The peo­ple of Haiti face a long and dif­fi­cult road ahead,” said Con­necti­cut Demo­c­ra­tic Sen­a­tor Christo­pher Dodd, lead author of the Haiti Recov­ery Act and chair­man of the Sen­ate Bank­ing Committee.

“But the United States Sen­ate made it clear that they will not have to walk that road alone,” he added.

In Feb­ru­ary, the world’s rich­est coun­tries, oth­er­wise known as the Group of Seven, said they will can­cel Haiti’s debt. Those coun­tries com­prise Britain, Canada, France, Ger­many, Italy, Japan, and the United States.

Haiti owes an esti­mated US$1.88 bil­lion dol­lars to inter­na­tional cred­i­tors. The Washington-based Inter-American Devel­op­ment Bank said about US$14 bil­lion will be needed to rebuild Haiti in the wake of the earthquake.

The US Con­gress is con­sid­er­ing leg­is­la­tion that would pro­vide about US$2.8 bil­lion in new aid to Haiti.

The inter­na­tional com­mu­nity, at a recent United Nations-hosted donors’ con­fer­ence, recently pledged almost US$10 bil­lion to aid in Haiti’s recon­struc­tion efforts.