§ Sir John StanleyTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the proposal on Third world debt formulated by the United States Treasury Secretary, Mr. Nicholas Brady; and whether he will be amending his own initiative in this area in the light of Secretary Baker's proposal.
§ Mr. LawsonThe proposals announced by Secretary Brady on 10 March relate to the middle-income debtor countries, the majority of whose debt is owed to commercial banks. The proposals include the use of IMF and World Bank finance to bring about voluntary debt reduction by the banks. They are being studied carefully in the run-up to the spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank next month, where they will be discussed. The initiative which I launched in April 1987 was aimed at the poorest, most heavily-indebted countries in sub-Saharan Africa whose debt is owed largely to official creditors. Implementation of this has already begun and sub-Saharan countries are therefore already benefiting from it.