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Canada

Canada and Debt:

Debts to Canada's export credit agency form the bulk of debts owed to Canada by developing countries.

...As of March 1999, export credit related debt formed 95 percent of the $2.5 billion debt owed Canada by the 55 countries that are worst off in terms of human development. Almost all of this debt is owed by governments. (In ECA language this means it is sovereign debt as compared to commercial). Of these debts, $76 million is publicly recognized to be in arrears - debt that is, essentially, uncollectable and, for these countries, unpayable due to the impacts these payments will have on life-saving resources.

Take Latin America as an example...

Latin American countries owe Canada's ECA the following. Canada's ECA is only one of potentially over 30 ECAs operating in Latin America. We, the public, may never know for what this money is owed.

Argentina owes $600 million dollars.
Brazil owes $800 million.
Chile owes $500 million.
Colombia owes $500 million.
Ecuador over $35 million.
Guatemala over $20 million.
Honduras owes $50 million.
Peru owes $800 million.
Venezuela owes $700 million.
Bolivia and Uruguay also owe money to Canada's export credit agencies but the amount is undisclosed.

From DEBT ASPECTS RELATED TO EXPORT CREDIT AGENCIES, prepared by the NGO Working Group on the Export Development Corporation, a working group of the Halifax Initiative Coalition, in Canada.

Drop the Debt! Halifax Initiative