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March 17, 2003
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The "What's New!" is a bi-weekly
email update to keep you informed of the latest uploads onto the
website which features a wide range of materials submitted by over
50 NGOs actively participating in the coalition. If you would like
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join ECA-Action,
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and announcements around policies and practices of ECAs and ECA-supported
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www.eca-watch.org today!
Questions? Email info@eca-watch.org
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In this issue:
1) The US ExIm Role in Saddam Hussein's Chemical Weapons Program
2) The UK Role in Saddam Hussein's Chemical Weapons Program
3) GIEK-Supported Norwegian Ship Exports
Brings Ecuadorian Debt
4) NGOs Call On IDB and Exim Bank to Drop Camesea
Project
5) ECAs Block APP Debt Restructuring
6) PT Paiton
Energy of Indonesia-- also restructuring its ECA debt
1) Exim and Saddam:
The Washington Post recently ran a story documenting the US' key
role in helping
Saddam Hussein obtain chemical weapon capabilities in the 1980s
and early '90s. The article indicates that US Export-Import Bank
(Exim) apparently supported the export of potentially lethal pesticides
to Iraq, citing an Ex-Im Bank memo that states that there was "'no
reason' to stop the sale, despite evidence that the pesticides were
'highly toxic' to humans and would cause death 'from asphyxiation.'"
2) ECGD and Saddam:
During the 1980s, the UK's Export Credits Guarantee Department
likely helped
finance chemical weapons in Iraq through its support in a chemical
factory, according to the Guardian.
As the US and UK search the world around for financiers of weapons
of mass destruction...
3) GIEK Supported Norwegian Ship
Exports Brings Ecuadorian debt:
The Ecuadorian NGO, Centro De Derechos Economicos Y Sociales (CDES)
has made its Nov. 2002 report, "Illegitimate Debts and Human
Rights, available on its website in both English and Spanish. The
report documents how credits from the Norwegian Guarantee Institute
for Exports Credits (GIEK) supported the export of four Norwegian
ships to Equator, resulting in sovereign debt for the country. Coincidentally,
the location of these ships remains unknown. The report lays out
"proposals and arguments in favor of the cancellation of illegitimate
debts, arguing for the possibility of independent international
arbitration and mediation."
Read the report in
English or Spanish.
4) NGOs Call On IDB and Exim Bank to Drop
Camesea Project:
On February 25, 2003, a coalition of environmental and human rights
NGOs issued
a comprehensive statement calling on the Inter-American Development
Bank (IDB) to reject financing for the Camesea oil and gas project
in Brazil. The Camesea project, under consideration by IDB and US
Export-Import Bank, threatens "an area recognized globally
for its spectacular biodiversity and for being home to isolated
and uncontacted indigenous peoples."
http://www.foe.org/new/releases/0203camisea.html
5) ECAs Block APP Debt Restructuring,
while PT Paiton Debt Restructuring Proceeds:
ECAs from Europe and Canada have threatened to block a proposed
restructuring of the multi-billion dollar debt owed by the Singapore-based
Asia Pulp and Paper, according to the February
7, 2003 Financial Times. ECAs collectively provided over billions
in financing for APP, an Asian pulp and paper giant owned by Suharto
cronies that has stripped vast areas of
rainforest and sparked clashes with native people. For more info,
see Case Study: Export
Credit Agency Finance in Indonesia, by Titi Soentoro and Stephanie
Fried.
6) Meanwhile, United
Press International reported on March 11, 2003 that PT Paiton
Energy, another Suharto era ECA-backed project debacle in Indonesia,
is also restructuring its debt with ECAs. U.S. Export-Import Bank,
U.S. Overseas Private Investment Japanese Bank for International
Cooperation, Nippon Export and Investment Insurance of Japan all
helped finance this failed project. For more info, see Publicly
Guaranteed Corruption: Corrupt Power Projects and the Responsibility
of Export Credit Agencies in Indonesia, by Peter Bosshard (available
on ECA-Watch website).
II. View 'back issues':
February 20, 2003
February 7, 2003
January 24, 2003
December 17, 2002
November 22, 2002
October 29, 2002
October 23, 2002
September 30, 2002
September 12, 2002
August 26, 2002
August 02, 2002 - ECA Watch web team was on vacation.
July 19, 2002
July 08, 2002
June 14, 2002
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