§ 3731. — Sense of the Congress regarding comprehensive debt relief for the world's poorest countries.
[Laws in effect as of January 24, 2002]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
January 24, 2002 and December 19, 2002]
[CITE: 19USC3731]
TITLE 19--CUSTOMS DUTIES
CHAPTER 23--EXTENSION OF CERTAIN TRADE BENEFITS TO SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
SUBCHAPTER III--ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT RELATED ISSUES
Sec. 3731. Sense of the Congress regarding comprehensive debt
relief for the world's poorest countries
(a) Findings
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The burden of external debt has become a major impediment to
economic growth and poverty reduction in many of the world's poorest
countries.
(2) Until recently, the United States Government and other
official creditors sought to address this problem by rescheduling
loans and in some cases providing limited debt reduction.
(3) Despite such efforts, the cumulative debt of many of the
world's poorest countries continued to grow beyond their capacity to
repay.
(4) In 1997, the Group of Seven, the World Bank, and the
International Monetary Fund adopted the Heavily Indebted Poor
Countries Initiative (HIPC), a commitment by the international
community that all multilateral and bilateral creditors, acting in a
coordinated and concerted fashion, would reduce poor country debt to
a sustainable level.
(5) The HIPC Initiative is currently undergoing reforms to
address concerns raised about country conditionality, the amount of
debt forgiven, and the allocation of savings realized through the
debt forgiveness program to ensure that the Initiative accomplishes
the goals of economic growth and poverty alleviation in the world's
poorest countries.
(b) Sense of the Congress
It is the sense of the Congress that--
(1) Congress and the President should work together, without
undue delay and in concert with the international community, to make
comprehensive debt relief available to the world's poorest countries
in a manner that promotes economic growth and poverty alleviation;
(2) this program of bilateral and multilateral debt relief
should be designed to strengthen and expand the private sector,
encourage increased trade and investment, support the development of
free markets, and promote broad-scale economic growth in beneficiary
countries;
(3) this program of debt relief should also support the adoption
of policies to alleviate poverty and to ensure that benefits are
shared widely among the population, such as through initiatives to
advance education, improve health, combat AIDS, and promote clean
water and environmental protection;
(4) these debt relief agreements should be designed and
implemented in a transparent manner and with the broad participation
of the citizenry of the debtor country and should ensure that
country circumstances are adequately taken into account;
(5) no country should receive the benefits of debt relief if
that country does not cooperate with the United States on terrorism
or narcotics enforcement, is a gross violator of the human rights of
its citizens, or is engaged in conflict or spends excessively on its
military; and
(6) in order to prevent adverse impact on a key industry in many
developing countries, the International Monetary Fund must mobilize
its own resources for providing debt relief to eligible countries
without allowing gold to reach the open market, or otherwise
adversely affecting the market price of gold.
(Pub. L. 106-200, title I, Sec. 121, May 18, 2000, 114 Stat. 267.)
