LONDON -- Jean Chrétien emerged from a week's worth of meetings with European leaders yesterday proclaiming an international consensus for a new deal to help pull Africa out of poverty.
Despite some sticky issues still to be resolved, the agreement would see the world's eight richest nations take part in efforts to aid the continent through more development money, reduced trade barriers and debt relief. Mr. Chrétien, who some political observers say is trying to leave such a deal as his political legacy, was not specific about details and acknowledged there are some differences of opinion.
In general, however, the plan would boost aid for African nations that comply with a series of conditions, such as democratization, improved human rights and open markets. Leaders of the Group of Eight leading industrialized countries will meet in Alberta next month, hoping to crown the deal.
"We have a consensus. I'm pretty positive that we will have an agreement when comes the G8," Mr. Chrétien said after meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at 10 Downing St., the British Prime Minister's official residence.
The comments came at the end of a tour that took Mr. Chrétien to many of Europe's capitals, among them Madrid, Rome, Paris and London. Few of the leaders he met, which included Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, France's Jacques Chirac and leaders of the European Union, disagreed with the general direction of the plan.
"I am reasonably optimistic at this stage, as I think you are, Jean, that we will get a good deal out of the G8 summit ," Mr. Blair said. "I think that will send a very important signal that, as well as discussing how well our own economies are doing at the G8, we'll also be taking a keen interest, close interest, in what's happening in the other parts of the world."
The G8 discussions are a response to a proposal put forward by the African nations at last year's G8 conference in Genoa, Italy.
Mr. Chrétien was asked last year to help shape the G8 answer, known as the New Partnership for Africa's Development.
Yesterday, Mr. Chrétien said the initiative will help Africans become consumers in the world economy.
"The last 10 years, Africa has regressed, and we want them to be part of the world," he said. ". . . I guess that the action plan that we will be proposing next month will be a big step forward."
Most nations have already announced increases in their overseas development budgets. Canada declared earlier this year it would increase its overseas financial aid by 8 per cent a year over the next decade or so.
Despite the upbeat nature of the predictions, however, there remain some notes of discord.
Mr. Chrétien conceded that the nations have varied interests in Africa, and the matter of how the aid is parcelled out may have to be sorted out. For example, France has colonial ties to a number of French-speaking states and is said to be more skeptical of a notion to rank the African nations on a scale measuring their success in meeting conditions. Countries would qualify for bonus aid depending how high on the list they rank. The G8 would still finance projects in African states that don't meet the conditions.
"You talk with the French, the countries they have in mind are different than the ones we have in Great Britain," Mr. Chrétien said.
Canadian officials said yesterday that, although Mr. Chirac expresses support for the plan, he asked Mr. Chrétien in private meetings on Monday how the ranking system would operate.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. NoNonsense English offers this material non-commercially for research and educational purposes. I believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, i.e. the media service or newspaper which first published the article online and which is indicated at the top of the article unless otherwise specified.