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To: Lalit Jain who wrote (35707)	6/22/1999 10:00:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 116837

U.S. senators bash IMF plan to sell gold WASHINGTON, June 22 (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms joined other lawmakers on Tuesday in opposing an International Monetary Fund proposal to sell gold to aid poor nations, warning it could unnerve financial markets and hurt U.S. gold producers. ''We are unalterably persuaded that selling IMF gold reserves would adversely affect the very countries the (Clinton) administration intends to assist and further damage the U.S. domestic gold industry,'' Helms, a North Carolina Republican, and Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican, said in a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary-designate Lawrence Summers. The IMF wants to put money from gold sales into a trust fund, and use the interest income to fund debt relief and a lending program for poor countries. IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus said on Tuesday the IMF would make every effort to ensure the sales did not unsettle the markets. But the proposal has met resistance from some lawmakers, concerned that another sharp drop in gold prices would put U.S. companies and jobs at risk. The sales can only go ahead with the approval of the U.S. Congress. ''We cannot support a proposal that could very well damage viable private businesses and free markets in developing countries in exchange for relieving a portion of a country's sovereign debt,'' Helms and Hagel said. They said 36 of the 41 nations that would benefit from the IMF's debt relief program were gold producers themselves. ''If sales further depress gold prices, it is questionable that benefits from debt relief would outweigh the harm done by falling gold prices,'' they wrote. The letter urged Summers and the IMF to come up with an alternative approach. President Bill Clinton tapped Summers to take over as Treasury Secretary in July. His nomination has yet to be approved by the full Senate. Summers currently serves as deputy Treasury secretary. biz.yahoo.com