22 U.S.C. § 286s: Consideration of basic human…

Summary

The President must tell the Treasury Secretary, the Secretary of State, and other officials to push countries, when fixing balance-of-payments problems, to design their plans so they protect jobs, investment, real income per person, efforts to narrow the rich-poor gap, and social programs like health, housing, and education. U.S. representatives to the Fund must push for rule changes that allow stand-by arrangements to be extended beyond three years when needed, require the Fund to consider effects on those basic needs when approving programs, and require letters of intent to show the country has considered those effects. Before voting to approve any stand-by deal, the U.S. Executive Director must review any Fund or country analysis of those effects or, if none exists, use an analysis prepared by the U.S. Governor, and must consider that analysis when voting. U.S. reps to the Fund, the Bank, and other institutions must work to coordinate programs that promote jobs, investment, real income, better income distribution, and social services, lessen harm to the poor, and seek Bank-Fund coordination and Bank loans to support basic human needs and longer-term structural adjustment. They must also ask for regular reports on how adjustment programs affect those same areas.

Title 22, §286s

Foreign Relations and Intercourse, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Formulation and design of programs

The President shall instruct the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of State, and other appropriate Federal officials to use all appropriate means to encourage countries, in formulating economic adjustment programs to deal with their balance of payments difficulties, to design those programs so as to safeguard, to the maximum feasible extent, jobs, investment, real per capita income, policies to reduce the gap in wealth between rich and poor, and social programs such as health, housing, and education.

(b)Changes in Fund guidelines, policies, and decisions; review prior to approval of standby arrangements; coordination among institutions; coordination between Fund and Bank; periodic analyses

To ensure the effectiveness of economic adjustment programs supported by Fund resources and the reinforcement of those programs by longer term efforts to promote sustained growth and improved living conditions—

(1)United States representatives to the Fund shall recommend and shall work for changes in Fund guidelines, policies, and decisions that would—

(A)permit stand-by arrangements to be extended beyond three years, as necessary to enable Fund members to implement their economic adjustment programs successfully;

(B)provide that in approving any economic adjustment program the Fund shall take into account the effect such program will have on jobs, investment, real per capita income, the gap in wealth between the rich and poor, and social programs such as health, housing, and education, in order to seek to minimize the adverse impact of those adjustment programs on basic human needs; and

(C)provide that letters of intent submitted to the Fund in support of an economic adjustment program reflect that the member country has taken into account the effect such program will have on the factors listed in subparagraph (B);

(2)(A)before voting on the approval of any standby arrangement with respect to any economic adjustment program, the United States Executive Director shall review—

(i)any analysis of factors prepared by the Fund or the member country in accordance with subparagraphs (B) and (C) of paragraph (1), or

(ii)if no such analysis is prepared and available for such review, an analysis which shall be prepared by the United States Governor of the Fund which examines the effect of the program on the factors listed in subparagraph (B) of paragraph (1); and

(B)the United States Executive Director of the Fund shall take into account the analysis reviewed pursuant to subparagraph (A) of this paragraph in voting on approval of that standby arrangement;

(3)United States representatives to the Fund, to the Bank, and to other appropriate institutions shall work toward improving coordination among these institutions and, in particular, shall work toward formulation of programs in association with economic adjustment programs supported by Fund resources which (A) will, among other things, promote employment, investment, real income per capita, improvements in income distribution, and the objectives of social programs such as health, housing, and education, and (B) will, to the maximum extent feasible and consistent with the borrowing country’s need to improve its balance of payments position within a reasonable period, ameliorate any adverse effects of economic adjustment programs on the poor;

(4)United States representatives to the Fund and the Bank shall seek amendments to decisions on policies on the use of Fund and Bank resources to provide that, where countries are seeking Extended Fund Facility or upper credit tranche drawings from the Fund and are eligible to receive financing from the Bank, the Fund and Bank will coordinate their financing activities in order—

(A)to take into account the effects of economic adjustment programs on the areas listed in clause (A) of paragraph (3),

(B)to provide, to the extent feasible, Bank project loans designed to safeguard and further basic human needs in countries adopting economic adjustment programs supported by Fund resources, and

(C)to provide, as appropriate, Bank financing for programs of structural adjustment that will facilitate development of a productive economic base and greater attainment of basic human needs objectives over the longer term; and

(5)United States representatives to the Fund and the Bank shall request the Fund and the Bank to provide periodic analyses of the effects of economic adjustment programs supported by Fund or Bank financing on jobs, investment, real income per capita, income distribution, and social programs such as health, housing, and education.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1989—Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 101–240 struck out subsec. (c) which required inclusion of statement detailing progress made in carrying out subsecs. (a) and (b) requirements in Council’s annual report to Congress.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

Pub. L. 96–389, § 12, Oct. 7, 1980, 94 Stat. 1555, provided that: “This Act [enacting this section and section 286e–1g and 286t to 286x of this title, amending section 286e–1g, 286e–8, and 286e–9 of this title and section 27 of former Title 31, Money and Finance, and enacting provisions set out as notes under section 286a and 286t of this title and section 822a of former Title 31] shall take effect on its date of enactment [Oct. 7, 1980], except that funds may not be appropriated under any authorization contained in this Act for any period prior to October 1, 1980.”

§286s Consideration of Basic Human Needs in Economic Adjustment Programs Supported by Fund