KINGSTON, Jamaica – Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller admitted yesterday that the support of the United States’ Congressional Black Caucus convinced the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to sign an agreement with Jamaica in May, 2013.

“I express the appreciation of the Government and people of Jamaica to the members of the US Congressional Black Caucus, who spoke up on behalf of Jamaica,” Simpson Miller told the House of Representatives as she made her contribution to the 2015/16 Budget Debate.

“Fortunately, thanks to our enlightened policy of engagement, which we on this side of the honourable House have been pursuing since the 1970s, we still had ‘friends in court’ in Washington. Upon learning of the challenges we were facing, representatives of the Congressional Black Caucus, immediately began to lobby the IMF on Jamaica’s behalf.

“As a result of that work, as confirmed by the Managing Director of the IMF, Madame Lagarde herself, when she visited Jamaica last December: ‘I remember the 24th of December 2012, the day before Christmas… We had been told how difficult the situation is… and I was in close contact with Minister Phillips, but little did I know that there would be international pressure coming from the Hill’.

“I express the appreciation of the Government and people of Jamaica to the members of the US Congressional Black Caucus, who spoke-up on behalf of Jamaica. There can be no doubt that having signed off on the Economic Reform Programme, which is a central tenet of Jamaica’s agreement with the IMF, that Jamaica is in a better position today than it was three years ago”.

Balford Henry