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Iraq and the IMF: Economic Warfare
This week, the International Monetary Fund will be holding its annual meeting in Singapore. No doubt, the economic restructuring and forced leveraging of Iraq will be a key component of talks surrounding the meeting. In these past few months, free trade zones have been established along the borders with Syria and Iran; foreign investment laws have been vetted and approved; and laws governing investment in the oil sector have been drafted and introduced. Iraq continues to move forward in implementing conditions imposed upon it through the Stand By Arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in December of 2005. While the command economy established under Saddam Hussein's regime was unsustainable, it is also highly probable that the benefits of the economic restructuring under way at present will accrue to the benefit of an elite segment of Iraq and of the international community. It is improbable that ordinary Iraqi citizens will be the beneficiaries of these changes.
The blueprints for this radical restructuring of Iraq's economy are contained within the parameters of the Stand By Arrangement (S.B.A.) between Iraq and the I.M.F. Implemented in December 2005, this so-called "agreement" was reached between the IMF and Iraq's transitional government, at the final hour before the first government elected under Iraq's new constitution assumed office.
The S.B.A. is a condition imposed by the Paris Club [1] when its members opted to reduce their claims of debt against Iraq. Paris Club members claimed some $40 billion in debt against Iraq in December 2003. Other countries and multinational countries claimed some $85 billion in debt against Iraq. This debt was built up under the regime of Saddam Hussein and accrued mostly to the benefit of the regime rather than to the benefit of the Iraqi people as a whole. That is, it was mostly accrued to fund the build up of Hussein's military, his regime's internal security apparatus and his regime's war against Iran rather than to provide for the Common Good in Iraq-schools, health care, jobs, housing, etc.
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http://counterpunch.org/leys09192006.html
The S.B.A. is a condition imposed by the Paris Club [1] when its members opted to reduce their claims of debt against Iraq. Paris Club members claimed some $40 billion in debt against Iraq in December 2003. Other countries and multinational countries claimed some $85 billion in debt against Iraq. This debt was built up under the regime of Saddam Hussein and accrued mostly to the benefit of the regime rather than to the benefit of the Iraqi people as a whole. That is, it was mostly accrued to fund the build up of Hussein's military, his regime's internal security apparatus and his regime's war against Iran rather than to provide for the Common Good in Iraq-schools, health care, jobs, housing, etc.
Read More
http://counterpunch.org/leys09192006.html
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