9201: Haiti's Economic Punishment (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: kevin pina <kpinbox@hotmail.com>

Economic punishment has been the greatest tool used as leverage by the 
international community and the OAS in pressuring Haiti to alter its 
internal politcal landscape. If Haiti has been poor then we can only expect 
she has grown poorer since the patrons of "political crisis" hoisted their 
flag and effectively put a freeze on economic development.  Haiti may grow 
poorer still with the compounded impact of a global economic crisis and a 
further decline of economic infrastructure. Every nation in the world is 
adjusting its economic policy to "weather the storm" and Haiti would be 
foolish not to do the same.

Haiti's people should not be forced to endure further economic "punishment" 
for having a government that clearly enjoys the support of the poor 
majority, a fact that is rarely acknowledged or downplayed in the 
negotiations to resolve the "political crisis".  Haiti's democracy may be 
imperfect in its infancy but freezing international loans, while insisting 
that the interest continued to be paid on those loans in the current 
economic climate, is draconian.


     HAITI PROGRES-* THIS WEEK IN HAITI *

                        Oktob 3 - 9, 2001
                         Vol. 19, No. 29

Noting that the people's misery is growing, he [Aristide] recalled that
Haiti has already paid $8 million in interest on loans which the
Inter-American Development Bank has not yet released due to the
so-called crisis.


BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, Oct 5 (Reuters)...

VICIOUS CYCLE
Sachs said Argentina's ``depression'' was mostly due to a lack of 
competitiveness in technology and a low exports-to-gross domestic product 
ratio of about 8 percent. The exports/GDP ratio is the fourth-lowest in the 
world behind Rwanda, Burundi and Haiti, he said.

Argentina, Latin America's third-largest economy, is in its fourth year of a 
deep slump. The unpopular government faces the task of trying to kick-start 
sinking consumer demand while also making sharp cuts in public salaries and 
pensions to meet its deficit targets and please its creditors.

``This is not a hugely wasteful state where you can just slash spending, nor 
is the debt so large. It's the high interest payments that make the debt so 
expensive,'' Sachs said. ``Creditors are deeply hurting their own 
interests.''

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