G7 to discourage China from expensive export debt

(WSJ, Washington, 15 September 2006) – The Wall Street Journal reports that the G7 was to warn China at meetings in Singapore September 23-24 not to overload poor countries in Africa and elsewhere with high-interest trade finance loans. US Treasury Under-secretary for International Affairs Timothy Adams noted that “There are some aggressive countries out there that are ramping up their export-credit agencies and looking to take advantage of countries with lightened balance sheets.” The OECD’s Export Credit Group (ECG) agreed in July 2001 to a Statement of Principles designed to discourage the provision of officially supported export credits for “unproductive” expenditures in “Heavily Indebted Poor Countries” (HIPCs) and to report on and review these transactions.