Category: Odious Debts

Havens that have become a tax on the world’s poor

(September 22, 2004) London, England: Billions of pounds, enough to pay for the entire primary health and education needs of the world’s developing countries, are being siphoned off through offshore companies and tax havens, according to a new group called Tax Justice Network.

Paris Club favours ‘individual treatment’ of Iraqi debt cut

(September 14, 2004) The Paris Club of creditor nations did not arrive at a consensus on the exact amount of Iraq’s debt to be canceled, but agreed in principle to an individual treatment of the debt cut, the French Foreign Ministry announced this week. There is "consensus on the fact that Iraq’s debt is unbearable and that Iraq should benefit from the Evian approach decided at [the] G8 summit in 2003," said Foreign Ministry spokesman, Herve Ladsous. Such an approach, he said, permits the possibility of allowing an individual treatment of the debt cut to non-HIPC countries (Countries that are not technically Heavily Indebted Poor Countries).