Austerity and reforms have been imposed on countries that have been rescued from collapse Ireland, Portugal and, above all, Greece.
The commitment would mean easing the conditions usually imposed on countries that want debt forgiven, international financial officials said.
If the oil price stays where it is, it will foster discontent.Democrats and liberals should welcome the curb the oil price imposes on countries like Iran, Venezuela and Russia.
In the meantime, discussions are under way as to sanctions that the EU could impose on countries included in the final list.
Last month the US House of Representatives passed by an overwhelming majority a bill calling for tariffs to be imposed on countries with artificially low currencies.
But everyone knows that the international trade restrictions which Cites can impose on countries are limited and nowhere near enough to stop the £150bn a year trade.
EU leaders disagree over Italian calls for a quota system to be imposed on countries to resettle more than 100,000 migrants who have entered Italy and Greece since the start of this year.
But as Mark Williams of Capital Economics says, central to Keynes's idea was that a tax be imposed on countries running large current-account surpluses, to encourage them to boost domestic demand.
Even the reviled IMF can explain its hard line: given the bitter programmes it has imposed on countries from the global south, it can hardly now be lenient towards a European country that is, relatively, better off.
