British and German officials attacked U.S. resistance...

British and German officials attacked U.S. resistance to contributing to a special International Monetary Fund loan pool for the world’s poorest countries, most of them in Africa. Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III has suggested that nations with large trade surpluses, such as West German and Japan, should be the principal contributors to the fund, which would be used to reduce the current indebtedness of many impoverished African nations. But British Finance Minister Nigel Lawson told reporters at the annual meeting of the IMF and World Bank said the United States should also be involved in the proposed tripling of the IMF’s $3-billion Structural Adjustment Facility. “It’s not a question of whether we can do it or not,” Lawson said. “It is whether it is right that the United States should opt out. I don’t think it is.” Karl Otto Poehl, head of West Germany’s central bank, also said that all developed nations should contribute.