Europe looking to lead on response to financial crisis
A warning against US (and Canadian?) opposition to a new international architecture of institutions and tighter regulations to manage a more “moral” form of global capitalism, a flexible Economic Council within the United Nations, and an economic sustainability charter that establishes the rules for global financial governance, were three of the key themes raised by German Chancellor Angela Merckel and French President Sarkozy at a high-level symposium hosted by Sarkozy and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Paris this month.

December 22, 2008

The Honourable James Flaherty
Minister of Finance
Department of Finance Canada
140 O’Connor Street
Ottawa, ON  K1A 0G5

Dear Minister Flaherty:

Re: 2008 consultation with respect to the “Official Development Assistance Accountability Act”

Financial crisis a boon for ECAs
While hefty public bailouts of the financial and auto industries have stimulated debate on the role of governments in commercial markets, one form of government subsidy has flown beneath the proverbial radar: export credit. Confronted by an increasingly dire financial crisis, Western governments are using their export credit agencies (ECAs) to boost liquidity and rescue faltering industries. At an extraordinary World Trade Organization meeting last month, participating governments reported a 30% increase in ECA business over the previous 12 months. The WTO called for even greater reliance on public credit to lessen the burden on commercial banks. Shortly afterwards, the OECD announced an agreement with non-members, including Russia and Brazil, to provide markets with publicly-sourced export credit.

What is the Bank of the South?
On December 9th, 2007, representatives from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela met in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to launch “el Banco del Sur” or the Bank of the South (BoS). With the creation of the Bank, the leaders of Latin America envisaged a new development institution to help promote growth and tackle poverty. The BoS was originally proposed in 2006 by Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. Chavez, along with other South American leaders, wanted a Bank that would allow them to assert their political and financial independence from traditional international financial institutions (IFIs), like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, and put an end to decades of structural adjustment policies imposed by the IFIs on countries in Latin America.

G-20 Summit – financial response to a development crisis
With the global economy continuing its downward spiral, ambitions for the first Group of 20 (G-20) “Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy” in Washington were sky high. In contrast, expectations in terms of concrete outcomes, with diverging opinions on key issues going into the meeting and a pretender at the throne in DC, couldn’t have been lower.

Wolfowitz & World Bank in the spotlight over scandal
While the World Bank's executive directors have yet to make a decision on the future of president Paul Wolfowitz, calls for the former U.S. deputy defence secretary’s resignation are gaining momentum. The Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group (IEG), which assesses the degree to which the Bank's work meets its stated objectives, issued a formal statement described by the Financial Times as a “searing indictment of Paul Wolfowitz's leadership.”

On April 26th, NSI President, Roy Culpeper, and KAIROS Canada's Global Economic Justice Coordinator, presented their views on the issues raised by the Government’s annual report on the Bretton Woods Organizations (the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank) before members of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development (SFAIT).  The meeting was called by the Standing Committee in response to a request by the Halifax Initiative Coalition. 

December 15, 2005

January 3, 2006

Mr. John Mihevc
Chair
Halifax Initiative Coalition
Suite 104, 153 Chapel Street
Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 1H5

Dear Mr. Mihevc:

Thank you for your letter of September 12, 2005 regarding Canada's contributions to the global fight against poverty. I regret the delay of my reply.

The United Nations Millennium +5 Summit and the annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) were extremely important opportunities to secure commitments to advance international efforts toward poverty alleviation. Canada was very active in the lead-up to these events and Canadian officials worked hard to ensure that there was no erosion of existing international commitments in the United Nations Summit Outcome document. In this, I believe, we were largely successful.

For pdf click here.

September 12, 2005