§ Mr. PikeTo ask the Prime Minister what discussions he has had in the last six months regarding the Trinidad terms; and if he will make a statement.
§ The Prime MinisterUnder the existing Trinidad terms, which resulted from my personal initiative, 18 countries have benefited. Over $4 billion of debt has been restructured and nearly $2 billion will be reduced over the266W lifetime of the individual agreements. We expect more countries to benefit over the coming months. These terms have the effect of halving the payments due to creditors and give a commitment to consider restructuring the whole stock of a country's eligible debt after a good track record of economic reform has been established. This would lead to significant additional relief for indebted countries in the medium term.
At the G7 Tokyo summit last July, I secured agreement that improved debt reduction terms should be considered for the poorest and most indebted countries, including, for the first time, earlier action case by case on reducing the whole stock of debt—a key Trinidad terms objective.
The United Kingdom is active in the Paris club and elsewhere in seeking co-ordinated action by creditors on the comprehensive debt reduction which these countries need, the Government miss no opportunity for urging other creditors to make progress.