Mitterrand: Cancel Third of Poor Countries’ Debt

President Francois Mitterrand called on industrial nations Wednesday to cancel one-third of the debt owed to them by the world’s poorest countries and said France would go ahead with the cuts whatever the reaction to his plan.

French government spokesman Jacques Attali said Mitterrand had already sent a letter to the heads of the Group of Seven industrial powers, due to meet in Toronto later this month, detailing his proposals.

“We cannot any longer allow a situation to exist where financial transfers from the South to the North exceed by almost $30 billion transfers in the opposite direction,” Mitterrand’s letter said.

“Never has it been as urgent and as necessary to act to help the countries of the Third World, with the gap not ceasing to widen between rich nations and poor nations.”

In an apparently coordinated move, the Bonn government simultaneously announced its own debt-forgiveness program.

Britain Welcomes Plan

A government spokesman in Bonn said West Germany would write off $50 million of debt owed by five African nations and was considering forgiving $1.27 billion more.

And in London, Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson welcomed the French plan, which he said was a variant of earlier proposals he had made and had been endorsed by the United States.

U.S. Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III has long opposed debt-forgiveness, but last week unveiled a plan which for the first time acknowledged that poor countries, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, represent a special case to be treated separately from large middle-income debtors such as Brazil.

Whatever the reaction of the other G-7 nations--the United States, Japan, Britain, West Germany, Italy and Canada--France will go ahead and cancel a third of its own loans to impoverished nations, Attali said.

He did not provide any figures, but said the proposal would cover debt owed to governments, such as loans arranged by the Paris Club, and commercial loans guaranteed by government agencies.

Mitterrand, just one month into a second presidential term, has long championed sub-Saharan nations, some of them former French colonies, and drawn attention to their plight.

Some of these nations have been battered by swings in commodity prices, famine, epidemics and other disasters. Extreme poverty also has taken hold in some parts of Asia and Latin America.

Helps Toronto Summit

In London, Lawson told reporters: “I am pleased to hear of President Mitterrand’s espousal of a variant of the proposals I launched last year to help ease the debt burden on the very poorest countries.

“Coupled with U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker’s remarks last week, this clearly improves the chances of getting agreement on this issue at the Toronto summit,” he said.

In April, 1987, Lawson unveiled an initiative to help reduce the debt burden on the poorest countries, particularly in Africa.

Canadian officials applauded Mitterrand’s proposal, while banking sources in Tokyo said the government was set to unveil its own plan.