Washington is preparing to push Taiwan to forgive all of the US$95 million in debt it is owed by poverty-stricken Haiti.
Both the House and the Senate have passed bills calling for the US treasury secretary to use the “voice, vote, and influence of the US” to urge all of the Caribbean island’s creditors to “cancel immediately and completely” Haiti’s debts.
Republican Congressman Spencer Bachus singled out Venezuela and Taiwan.
“The US has forgiven all of its bilateral debt to Haiti. Now, we are asking others to do the same. We are directing the secretary of the treasury to use his influence to seek debt cancelation from others,” he said during a debate in the House.
“Among them are Venezuela and Taiwan. By far, Venezuela is the largest bilateral creditor. Taiwan is a distant second,” he said.
The “Haiti Debt Relief and Earthquake Recovery Act of 2010” is expected to be signed into law before the end of this month.
At that point, the pressure will be on to forgive all of Haiti’s debt.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said a few days ago that it planned to help Haiti pay interest on the debt it owes to Taiwanese creditors.
FULL AMOUNT
It seems that this may now be too little as the US urges Taipei to go much further and forgive the whole amount.
Haiti was struck by a devastating magnitude 7 earthquake on Jan. 12.
Figures cited by the US Congress showed that 230,000 people were killed, 300,000 injured and 1.3 million left homeless.
Haiti owes a total of US$828 million to the IMF, the Inter-American Development Bank and the International Development Association. In addition, it owes US$58 million to the International Fund for Agricultural Development and millions more to other individual countries.
Damage caused by the earthquake is estimated at US$8 billion, with reconstruction costs expected to be about US$14 billion.
“Debt relief is not a matter of charity. It is really a matter of economic justice,” Democratic Congresswoman Barbara Lee said.
“Over half of Haiti’s debt was borrowed under Haiti’s dictatorships, some of which were brutally repressive,” she said. “Thus, moneys borrowed by these regimes should not be borne by the Haitian people who had no say whatsoever on how these moneys were spent.”
“Haiti is not in a position to service debt while it is struggling to meet the basic needs of its people like food, water, health care and shelter,” she added.
Washington sources said Haiti owes US$300 million to Venezuela and US$95 million to Taiwan.
In Taipei, MOFA said it had crafted a debt relief proposal for Haiti and referred it to the Executive Yuan for approval by Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義).
Under the proposal, the interest on debt owed by Haiti to two Taiwanese commercial banks would be repaid using the ministry’s official budget.
Asked for a comment on the US position, MOFA spokesman Henry Chen (陳銘政) said it was unlikely the government would replace the proposed debt reduction plan with complete debt cancelation for Haiti.
CONCERN
The money lent to Haiti was taken from the country’s foreign reserves via lending contracts with two commercial banks instead of directly from the treasury, Yang has said previously.
“Such commercial contracts have to be upheld,” Chen said.
When asked whether the government would appropriate funds from the treasury to repay the loans to the two commercial banks, Chen said the size of the loans was a concern.
“As [the loan owed by Haiti] is a large sum of money, we have to take into account whether the legislature will agree to a plan to repay the full debt,” he said.
The debt reduction proposal will deliver bailout funds to Haiti, said Chen, adding that the government would continue to help its Caribbean ally rebuild via four major programs in the fields of sanitation and healthcare, relocation of earthquake victims, job training and infant adoption.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a "tsunami watch" alert after a magnitude 8.7 earthquake struck off the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Russia earlier in the morning. The quake struck off the east coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula at 7:25am (Taiwan time) at a depth of about 19km, the CWA said, citing figures from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The CWA's Seismological Center said preliminary assessments indicate that a tsunami could reach Taiwan's coastal areas by 1:18pm today. The CWA urged residents along the coast to stay alert and take necessary precautions as waves as high as 1m could hit the southeastern
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without
The National Museum of Taiwan Literature is next month to hold an exhibition in Osaka, Japan, showcasing the rich and unique history of Taiwanese folklore and literature. The exhibition, which is to run from Aug. 10 to Aug. 20 at the city’s Central Public Hall, is part of the “We Taiwan” at Expo 2025 series, highlighting Taiwan’s cultural ties with the international community, National Museum of Taiwan Literature director Chen Ying-fang (陳瑩芳) said. Folklore and literature, among Taiwan’s richest cultural heritages, naturally deserve a central place in the global dialogue, Chen said. Taiwan’s folklore would be immediately apparent at the entrance of the
RSS