Closing the IMF Committee with Resolution Papers
The countries in the IMF committee are trying the broken conditions of the IMF, which were as broken as the air conditioner in their room. During the fourth committee session of IMF, countries are working on their draft resolution papers to present in future committee sessions. They showed many new and interesting solutions that we hadn’t heard from before like a “Military Tax” and a tier system for countries to pay off their loans.
One resolution paper named “Enter Framework” was presented to the Busy PBS by Germany, Malaysia, and Greece. They focus on the fact that many developing countries currently need to take loans out of desperation instead of choosing a solution for what suits them best. To solve this issue, they believe that countries that are suffering from debt should create their own terms that will be evaluated by the IMF. Social laws are forced upon governments to prevent them from slashing funds for social services, such as healthcare. Though it is tightly enforced, in the case of countries requiring taking funds from services, the situation of the country will be reviewed by the IMF to see which service they take from. Finally, there are tiers for countries that will incentivize them to pay their loans off quicker. This was a very controversial point as many countries claimed that it forces these countries to simply care about their tier instead of on the main issue and making them appear more as “dollar signs”, stated by Ukraine.
S.E.C.U.R.E. is a resolution paper presented to the Busy PBS by Jamaica and Luxembourg. They state that they would like to give the public more say while also creating more transparency between the government and public. This is with experts to show data of the economic state that the country is in while also educating them. They also believe that each country should have a budget surplus. Though the amount wasn’t stated, it would be used to mitigate the severity of future crises.
Senegal, Finland, and Turkey presented an untitled resolution paper that said there will be a “National Representation Council” to help all counties to discuss their problems. This data would also be viewed by the IMF to predict possible crises in the future. They also would add a “Climate Escape Clause”, which allows countries that are suffering from climate-related disasters to be able to get some leeway and postpone times for loans.
Social, Economic and Welfare, Prosperity (S.E.W.P.) was presented to the Busy PBS by Zambia who says that SCEWP would strengthen the ways governments would earn revenue instead of governments taking away from social services. To earn this revenue, countries in debt will be overviewed by the IMF to earn more from their sector, like the mining sector, or from tax. Though it is still unsure how the IMF will complete this goal. They also would ensure that countries are earning their revenue from public creditors instead of private ones. This is because private sectors are more predatory and more likely to ask for more money.
Finally, I was presented the resolution paper “International Relations of the IMF”. Saudi Arabia and India stated that the paper tailor conditions toward developing nations and using previous data to try to predict future crises. They have a very interesting solution in a “Military Tax”. The tax would tax 2.25% of the funding of the military in case the military's funding was double of the funding of social services. Countries that earn less than the median of the countries around and countries being attacked by any war would be exempted from this tax.
To conclude, the IMF committee has been hard at work trying to solve the problem of the “one-size-fits-all” type of condition the IMF previously had. The solutions range from giving more conditions to countries in debt crises to ensuring that social services’ funding doesn't get slashed.