Prime Minister Mia Mottley Thursday reiterated her call for the reform of global institutions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking at the 13th International Economic Forum on Latin America and the Caribbean, Mottley said equitable access to vaccines and financing for small countries were among the most pressing issues.
She declared: “What 2020 revealed was the absolute need for the urgent reform of our international institutions. It also revealed that there is an absence of global, moral strategic leadership, for if that leadership existed we would not in my view still be fighting in the way in which we are fighting on so many levels, from the containment of this virus with the absence of vaccine equity and with the terrible debt crisis and financial crisis that potentially could be spawned from this health pandemic.
“I therefore ask as we reflect today whether we should not be involved in serious reform of the international architecture. It is not nice to have but is now necessary and vital.
“We need to supplement eligibility criteria for concessionary financing that is more sensitive to current and future vulnerabilities than that which is captured in past measures of GDP [Gross Domestic Product] which frankly is completely irrelevant when you consider the circumstances of our countries.”
Mottley called for a more universal automatic debt standstill arrangement that captures both public and private sector debt.
The Prime Minister said there was a need to reform the international financial architecture.
While developing countries have approximately $1 trillion of debt service between 2020 and 2022, the debt service suspension initiative merely covered $11 billion of public sector debt, she said.
She also called for the establishment of an international clearing house as necessary for the purchase and sale of vaccines.
“It cannot be that countries that are here have to be the victim of middlemen in circumstances where global pharmaceutical companies are saying they only deal with countries, but in reality they have dealt with none of the small countries or very few of the small countries but have had small countries have to deal with middlemen who are selling the vaccines at a premium to small countries,” Mottley said.
“The bottom line is the presence of that international clearing house, the presence of a global summit on COVID will allow us to coordinate our actions both in terms of restrictions, even 16 months later and it will allow us to fight the race against variants.” (RB)
