Sanctioning Apartheid - KORA

Sanctions and Financing South Afrrca's Fortrigtl Trade 227
credit ra- is a general purpose loan becomes, in h es of poor
credit ratings, trade finance linked bo +e trade transaction.
However, some information is avaiEable on bank trade dts
which are insured by government of the OEcD member nations,
and that is described below.
Xnsured Bank Cwditg
The bank creclits for trade that are insured by OED member
countries dropped from $20 billion at the end of 19815 to about
$1.8 billion by mid-1986 and has remained at that level through
mid-1937. Unlikr! interbank lending which is primarily in US
dollars, trade dts tend to be denominated in the l d
m u e s of the country exporting to South Africa Only two
codes provide public data on these gumanteed bank trade
dk.
The US does not now generally provide insurance, and has
only $0.358 million of a $3.1 million Expork-Import Bank
parantee to run off the books?
The only other country that reports insured bank credits is
the UK, and they have remained relatively constant, between
$0.87 billion and $0.81 billion in dollar terms, since mid-1985.
These UK insured bank trade credits made up about 45% of the
total ~~~g-insured bank d t s in mid-1987. If all the pounds
sterling expoflve of banks in the UK is in trade d t s ratha
than general lending to South Africa, then these guaranteed
d t s are esm.tially all in pounds sterling. Thus total UK
gumantees since mid-1985, expressed in pounds sLeriin5 wdd have d m by 30% rather than remaining roughly constant,
as they appear in dollar temrs.
Mid-1985 is close to the imposition of the moratorium on the
Sauth Mcafi external debt in September 1985; thus we see a
declining trend in the lending o! pounds sterling since the
moratorium's imposition. This trend is masked by the conversion
to a depredating dollar. The yen and the Deutsche Mark
have appxbted with respect to the doh even more than the
pound. Thus it mn be said with reasonable certainty that bank
credit guarantees have canhued to drop throughout the perid
between mid-19% and mid-1987 when expressed in the currencies
in which these dts are denominated. The total decrrease