Examination of Witnesses (Numbers 460
- 466)
TUESDAY 6 JULY 1999
MR M CASALE,
MR J JONES,
MR A J GAMMON
AND MR
S GODDARD
460. We are not actively doing so at the moment
as far as you are aware.
(Mr Casale) Not in general, no. Cyprus which you mentioned
earlier was one where here was a country where we had been applying
pressure politically and at a technical level to do something.
Separately we have been providing further guidance and assistance
to our own Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories to help
them implement the current measures but not to other independent
countries.
Mr Casale) It is not the
Department for International Development. It would be Treasury
who advises the people in those jurisdictions or the Bank of England.
462. To my knowledge there is such a person
attached to the Caribbean, both for our dependencies and also
for the independent states in the Caribbean. He is paid for by
the Department for International Development as I understand it.
(Mr Casale) Yes, the Department for International
Development has a few technical experts based in the Overseas
Territories, essentially acting as financial regulators. Separately
the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has two people based in the
Caribbean who are supposed to provide assistance and advice on
good government. They also cover independent territories rather
than our own Overseas Territories.
463. So it is from the FCO, is it?
(Mr Casale) No, they are employed by the FCO but they
have not really had much of a role in providing assistance or
advice on sanctions per se, although they do provide assistance
and advice on money laundering and those types of issues.
Ann Clwyd
464. One thing I was curious about. I do not
know how much the assets of the Iraqi regime are in this country
but I have heard debates at various times about the unfreezing
of those assets for certain purposes. That regime cost the British
taxpayer something like £600 million in export credit guarantees.
Why can't the frozen assets be unfrozen in order to pay back the
British taxpayer the £600 million that they defaulted on?
(Mr Gammon) Because the assets are frozen and not
sequestrated. What you are asking would amount to sequestration
of the assets, unless the Iraqi account holders consented to the
payment. If they asked to pay the ECGD back for example, we would
certainly let them.
465. They are hardly likely to do so, are they.
(Mr Gammon) We have no powers to make them.
466. There is no power to sequestrate them,
is there?
(Mr Gammon) No.
(Mr Casale) Some so-called pre-zero debts have been
paid where there has been consent.
Chairman: We are going to have to leave it there
if we are to take advantage of Ambassador Fowler's presence in
the country today. May I thank you very much for getting through
our questions? We have a lot more we should like to ask you but
time will not permit. Thank you very much indeed for coming to
us this morning.
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