Middle East Report Online
http://www.merip.org/index.html
The IMF and the Future of Iraq
Zaid Al-Ali
December 7, 2004
(Zaid Al-Ali practices international commercial arbitration law in Paris and works with Jubilee Iraq, an organization advocating debt relief for Iraq. He is also the editor of http://www.iraqieconomy.org/)
On November 21, 2004, the 19 industrialized nations that make up the so-called Paris Club issued a decision that, in effect, traces the outline of Iraq's economic future. The decision concerns a portion of Iraq's $120 billion sovereign debt -- a staggering amount that all concerned parties recognize is unsustainable. In their proposal to write off some of the debt, the Paris Club members took advantage of the opportunity to impose conditions that could bind the successor government in Baghdad to policies of free-market fundamentalism.
Posted at December 8, 2004 03:08 PM