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Pay the United Nations - UN Finance - Global Policy Forum Pay the United Nations
Washington Post
March 19, 2001Back in December, the long-running fight between the United States and the United Nations supposedly ended. Other countries agreed to pay more so that the US dues could be reduced; this followed other US-backed reforms, including imposition of merit-based appointments and cuts in the UN budget. In return, the United States was supposed to pay its UN debt and resume its leadership position within the institution. Unfortunately, Congress has yet to deliver its end of the bargain.
The most obvious delay is in the House, which has failed to match the Senate in passing a bill to pay off $582 million of UN debt. But two other problems need to be fixed. A 1995 measure known as the Dole amendment forbids the United States from paying more than 25 percent of UN peacekeeping costs. In December the United Nations accepted that share as reasonable and agreed to abandon the old requirement that the United States pay 31 percent. But the December deal reduces the American obligation in phases. Unless Congress acts to repeal the Dole amendment soon, the United States will accumulate new arrears and so renege on the spirit of the December agreement.
Congress also needs to address the timing of its payments. Since the 1980s the United States has paid January bills only at year-end. Because the United States is its biggest contributor, this makes life difficult for the United Nations. It is forced to shuffle money between accounts, resorting to dubious budgetary gimmicks that the United States, as an outspoken critic of bad UN management, ought not be encouraging.
Secretary of State Colin Powell has pressed Congress to do the right thing on these issues, but the White House has been silent. It is not clear, for example, whether it supports the principle of prompt payment. Meanwhile Sen. Jesse Helms and Rep. Henry Hyde, the two key committee chairmen in Congress, are moving at a leisurely pace. Delay erodes American credibility, making it harder to lead the institution on issues that matter to US interests, ranging from Iraqi sanctions to fighting against AIDS to peacekeeping.
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