France and Germany Give Baker Lukewarm Reaction on Iraq Debt

France and Germany Give Baker Lukewarm Reaction on Iraq Debt

By CRAIG S. SMITH

Published: December 16, 2003

PARIS, Dec. 16 — Former Secretary of State James Baker III received a tepid commitment from France and Germany today to help reduce Iraq's towering foreign debt, a legacy of Saddam Hussein's ruinous wars and the crippling economic sanctions that followed them.

The French did not offer to go beyond their previously announced plan to negotiate a debt reduction plan for Iraq within the framework of the Paris Club, a group of 19 industrialized countries that have jointly worked to alleviate the financial obligations of over-indebted countries since 1956

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In Berlin, after talks between Mr. Baker and Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany, a government spokesman, Bela Anda, said "Germany and the United States agree that a solution to the debt question is essential for the reconstruction of Iraq."

But a second spokesman said only that the United States and Germany would continue to have talks over Washington's decision to bar countries like France, Germany and Russia from bidding on reconstruction contracts in Iraq worth about $18.6 billion. The three countries all opposed the war.

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The best deal the Paris Club has ever cut with a developing country was a 66 percent debt reduction for the former Yugoslavia after the ouster of President Slobodan Milosevic.

But the Paris club holds less than half of Iraq's outstanding debt and without substantial write-offs by the country's other creditors, even that deal would leave Iraq with a hobbling burden of old loans.

more: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/16/international/middleeast/16CND-PARIS.html

they were wrong for doing business with sadam so i dont think iraq should have to pay for sadams sins

While he was at Halliburton in the 1990's he did $40 million worth of business with Iraq. I'm sure Dick will tell Halliburton to give the money back to Iraq.

Let me understand....if one disapproves of the country, and another country does business with them you can then say: Bad country, they don't have to pay your debts (after invading them and completely wrecking their economy?) I would have to disagree.

A good article is:

A Halliburton Primer (Libya and Iraq)
OnPolitics (washingtonpost.com) July 11, 2002 Halliburton came under fire in the early '90s for supplying Libya and Iraq with oil drilling equipment which could be used to detonate nuclear weapons.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/articles/halliburtonprimer.html

Links on Halliburton in Iraq, before and after the war:
http://home.columbus.rr.com/lfairban/Pages/Corporate.htm#Iraq

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Should they pay that profit back to our gov't? Maybe we can just deduct it from Cheney's annual Haliburton paychecks. Ya think?

but i meant any business after the un in sanctions

and if halaberton did any thing for sadam after 1991 then they should not be payed as well

Furthermore in 200o prior to the time they stole the election, Cheney had given a speech against sanctions since he wanted to do business in Iraq....if you google, you will find it....

Please inform yourself before you believe any of the current blather.

As well, excluding France, Germany and other contries from reconstruction contracts has nothing to do with the debt situation. On this basis, Saudi Arabia, biggest debtor of Iraq, should be excluded as well.

Most debt is to Arab countries, most reparations too. And many other countries were eager to support Iraq as long as it was fighting Iran.

After that war ended, the Gulf States, especially Kuwait, suddenly wanted their money back. Falling oil prices, acellerated by agressive oil sales mostly by Kuwait, aggravated the situation for Iraq, which had hoped their debt would be forgiven. After all, hadn't it faught a proxy war against revolutionary Islamism?

The very high reparations after the first Gulf War added to the debt. Even when Iraq was suffering badly under the U.N. embargo, big amounts of its oil revenue were used to pay off reparations.


Check the debt situation at: http://www.jubileeiraq.org/debt_today.htm

"Mr. Baker is perhaps the perfect person for the job, having negotiated the restructuring of Latin America's mountain of debt in the 1980's."

What's up with that? Anybody have details?

or when he was Secretary of the Treasury?

I don't have details or any recollection of it but that would be my guess.

or the Kuwaiti debt which are larger than France and the Germans. Oh, I forgot the Saudis and the Carlyle boys are kind of connected, 'eh?

according to the Canoe

Of the 120 billion dollars (97 billion euros) Iraq owes, 40 billion is due to the Paris Club and 80 billion is owed to other countries, most of them Arab.

Within the Paris Club of creditor countries which are owed more than one third of Iraq's debt, Japan is the biggest creditor, owed 4.1 billion dollars, followed by Russia, owed 3.5 billion. France, three billion, Germany, 2.4 billion, the United States, 2.2 billion and Italy, 1.7 billion. Overdue interest payments almost double those sums.

So France and Germany are owed about $10 billion out of a total $120 billion. And this is the story that is making all the news?

http://www.jubileeiraq.org/reperations.htm

Reparations by countries: http://www.jubileeiraq.org/reperations.htm#breakdown

I can't believe they sent Baker (a man with an OBVIOUS conflict of interest) as the envoy on this issue. Hubris!

,...per an earlier post. I sure would love to have been a fly on the wall during those talks though,...wouldn't have you?

Effing boot-licking toady corporate media!

:smoke:

,...more substantive than what had already been agreed to. It doesn't appear so.

This is the second time today they have issued a story that is a direct contradiction of other reporting.

First this.

And now this? France, Germany to Help Relieve Iraq Debt

-SNIP
President Bush's special envoy on Iraq won agreement Tuesday from Germany and France, two of the most ardent opponents of the American-led war, to ease Baghdad's huge debt burden.
-SNIP-

Of course you would have to read down a little farther in the story to get at the heart of the matter.

-SNIP-
Details of how much debt would be restructured and canceled were left for further negotiations.

Iraq owes $40 billion to the United States, France, Germany, Japan, Russia and others in the 19-nation Paris Club. Other countries and private creditors are owed at least $80 billion in addition.
-SNIP-

I'm scratching my head in bewilderment.

Jay

but, I thought this was another tremendous achievment by our regime. Little wonder we can believe a thing our American Pravda says.