G7 writes off Haiti's debt, urges others to do same

The Group of Seven (G7) nations agreed at their meeting in northern Canada to cancel debts owed to them by Haiti.

Canadian finance minister, Jim Flaherty, made the announcement at the close of the G7 meeitng on Saturday.

“We are committed in the G7 to the forgiveness of debt, in fact all bilateral debt has been forgiven by G7 countries vis-a-vis Haiti,” Flaherty said at the end of a two-day meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors.

“The debt to multilateral institutions should be forgiven, and we will work with these institutions and other partners to make this happen as soon as possible,” he added.

Flaherty urged international lending agencies to follow the G7 lead.

Haitian authorities estimate that 200,000 people were killed as a result of a catastrophic 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck on January 12.

Many buildings in the capital and surrounding areas crumbled during the quake, rendering more than a million people homeless.

The G7 - which includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom - has been under pressure to ease the strain on Haiti, which was already the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere prior to the earthquake.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown hailed the move as the right thing to do.

“It must be right that a nation buried in rubble must not also be buried in debt,” Brown said in a statement.

“The UK has already cancelled all debts owed to it by Haiti and I strongly welcome today's G7 commitment to forgive Haiti's remaining multilateral debt,” he added.

Caribbean American Congressowman Yvette Clarke welcomed the announcement by the US government that it will work with its global partners to cancel all debts owed to international institutions.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Friday that the Obama administration will also work to ensure grant financing to support Haiti's reconstruction and recovery from the devastating earthquake

“I applaud Secretary Geithner and the Obama Administration for leading a global effort to relieve all of Haiti’s debt,” Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, who represents the 11th Congressional District in Brooklyn, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) in New York on Saturday.

“This is an encouraging step forward to the long term recovery for this nation,” added Clarke, who represents the largest district of Caribbean immigrants in the US.