WSJ.com - Who's Stingy?

Thanks to the WSJ.com for highlighting the most important components of the one.org campaign and the G8 summit---a)restructuing of international trade to allow Africans to compete and b) the linkage of good aid and good governace...


WSJ.com - Who's Stingy?: "n an interview broadcast in Britain on Monday, Mr. Bush said the U.S. would 'absolutely' drop its system of farm subsidies if the European Union eliminated its $40 billion a year Common Agricultural Policy. Now, that's a radical idea. It certainly trumps the calls by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and others to double official development aid to sub-Saharan Africa or to forgive more debt. Getting rid of U.S. and EU farm subsidies -- and the protectionism they entail -- would do far more to address what liberals like to call a 'root cause' of poverty.

Too many African exports, particularly farm commodities, are kept out of Western markets by tariffs, import quotas and price supports for domestic producers. Open those markets and encourage better African governance and, as history has proven over and over, you'll unlock the door for poor nations to generate wealth and free themselves from dependence on handouts"...

The Administration has already led the effort to cancel the multilateral debt of the 38 "highly indebted poor countries," or HIPCs. These countries owe $40 billion to international financial institutions such as the World Bank, and the G-8 agreement promises to make the debt payments as they come due over the next 40 years.

The debt-relief agreement also restructures the way aid is distributed. As the loans are paid off, the HIPCs will not automatically get additional lending. Instead, the new money available through the World Bank's International Development Agency and the African Development Bank can be disbursed to any developing country. The deciding factor will be measurable efforts toward good governance.

We would have preferred that the debt simply be canceled and the balance sheets of the international financial institutions not be replenished at all. And we're not confident that the World Bank will adequately screen for performance without an independent evaluation system in place. But it is encouraging that at least new funds will not automatically be disbursed in proportion to previous failures....