RELEASE: Rep. Hill Leads Letter Urging Intervention at IMF to Ensure no SDRs Are Made Available to Taliban-led Afghanistan
LITTLE ROCK, AR,
August 17, 2021
LITTLE ROCK, AR – Rep. French Hill (AR-02) led a letter, co-signed by 17 Republican members of Congress on the Financial Services Committee, to U.S. Department of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen urging her to intervene at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to ensure that no allocated Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) are made available to a Taliban-led Afghanistan. In the letter, Rep. Hill and the members state, “We write to once again express our deep concerns over the forthcoming allocation of $650 billion in SDRs when the IMF’s general allocation becomes effective on August 23, 2021. An estimated $450 million will be allocated to Afghanistan and potentially flow to the Taliban regime just days after their takeover from the elected Afghan government.” The members continued by requesting an update from Secretary Yellen detailing her actions by 5:00PM ET on Thursday, August 19, 2021. Additionally, members ask that Secretary Yellen provide detailed information on measures she will put in place at the IMF to ensure accountability so that SDRs – including transfers of SDRs – are not used by member countries in a manner that runs counter to our national interest. The members concluded, “Billions of dollars from the next SDR allocation will go into the hands of bad actors including state sponsors of terror, like Iran and Syria, and oppressive regimes such as China, Russia, and Belarus. After the events in Afghanistan of the past two weeks and the fall of the Afghan government on Sunday, the Taliban has been added to the list of rogue regimes. These events call for the United States to cut off hard currency to the Taliban, including through its access to Afghanistan’s SDRs.” For a fully copy of the letter, click HERE. |
