We must not allow a scenario in which a handful of countries get automatic access to IMF credit lines while others don't.
The crisis that has threatened the global economy since August 2007 has unfolded in an accelerating succession of phases.
October's phase was the spread to emerging markets.
A key step in fighting what could become a severe worldwide depression is making massive credit lines available to most emerging-market economies, which have been experiencing the repercussions of the deleveraging and associated credit crunch in the advanced economies.
This issue will be central to the November 15 meeting in Washington of leaders and ministers of the Group of 20 major industrialised and developing nations.
Almost all emerging-market economies are running into financing difficulties. The problem has been getting worse as big, internationally active banks hoard liquidity, as capital is repatriated to financial centers and as rich countries' gross domestic products contract.
Some currencies have lost 30 to 50 per cent of their values against the dollar, upsetting corporate balance sheets.
The risk spreads in bond markets have risen steeply, and access to loans or loan rollovers has become increasingly difficult to get for sovereign and non-sovereign borrowers from emerging-market economies.
Many have argued for concerted action involving large International Monetary Fund loans accompanied by credit lines from the European Central Bank as well as the central banks of Japan, the United States, China and some of the reserve-rich Gulf states.
The IMF announced a plan on Wednesday to create a short-term liquidity facility designed to channel funds quickly to eligible emerging markets with 'track records of sound policies, access to capital markets and sustainable debt burdens,'
as well as policies that 'have been assessed very positively by the IMF' in its most recent discussions with those nations.
And the Federal Reserve has announced new or enlarged swap facilities that Brazil, Mexico, Singapore and South Korea will be able to access.
Eligibility criteria to these credit channels and how these will be perceived are critical. Mexico's initial reaction to the IMF plan, for example, was that it did not need it, a response probably facilitated, at least in part, by the swap line
made available by the Fed.
What should not be allowed to emerge is a scenario in which a small group of countries that the IMF and rich countries' central bankers deem to have good track records have automatic access to large credit lines, while countries that are deemed riskier or that have less systemic importance or political clout have to apply for more