Haiti uses UN summit to ask for debt forgiveness

The United Nation’s meeting on plant health has been derailed by an economic impass between France and Haiti.

Haiti's representant talking with France's representant.

By Lara Novais and Sabrina Miranda

The UN plant health debate has taken an economic turn, with some “attacks” taking place between France and Haiti.

Haiti is the poorest country in America and therefore has asked for economic aid from the other participants, with special attention to France. The speaker for Haiti has officially responsibilized France for its poverty and current situation, mentioning the extreme foreign debt with interest that Haiti has been paying to France for 60 years. In a surprising declaration Haiti has asked France to forgive their debt, a plea which was partially granted. The Haitian delegation demonstrated dissatisfaction with this result seen when sources confirmed that Haiti employed diplomatic action requesting Germany’s and the UK’s support of the end of their debt which was declined by Germany due to the country’s status in the EU and went unanswered by the United Kingdom.

Haiti was also recently struck by disaster, when last year, a 5.9 magnitude earthquake hit the small island nation a devastating scenario which resulted in 12 deaths. The country had not yet recovered from hurricane Matthew and was again left to deal with the rubble. Although Haiti has an unfortunate track record with natural disasters, international aid has been limited.

All these factors have made Haiti’s contributions in the plant health sector minimal and therefore are relavent subjects, however take a different direction to the proposed debate and therefore are somewhat inadequate and off topic.