MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Venezuelan business community concerned about full Mercosur integration
President Hugo Chavez negotiating “behind Venezuela’s back” The potential full membership of Venezuela in Mercosur, before formalizing its departure from the Andean Community (CAN) has Venezuelan entrepreneurs and several parties linked to integration “awaiting and in uncertainty” since they are not in touch with government actions on the issue.
Several experts convened by Venezuela’s Centre for Dissemination of Economic Knowledge (Cedice) to discuss such processes and possible transition, considered “irresponsible that the government should advance on agreements with other countries on its own, behind Venezuela's back” said Delsa Solorzano, a member of Parlatino, the Latin American parliament.
Luis Alberto Russian, the CEO of the Chamber of Venezuelan-Colombian Economic Integration (Cavecol), commented that authorities from the administration of President Hugo Chavez need to report or consult with the private sector on negotiations, given the important implications for Venezuelan industry and commerce.
Venezuela’s National Council for Investment Promotion (Conapri) CEO Eduardo Porcarelli made “serious objections” to Venezuela's potential full membership in Mercosur.
Porcarelli said that by no means does he question integration into regional blocs, but he was worried that Venezuela and its production capacity could not catch up with the obligations imposed by Mercosur and its members’ strongly performing economies.
“We are concerned about the impact of opening our market to Mercosur countries on our local industries, particularly manufacturing”, underlined Porcarelli.
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Read all commentsAnd this dictatorship that protrudes to be a democracy , actually has friends that supports him, including a few south American countries,
Apr 05th, 2011 - 01:52 pm 0that believe this kind of government is ok., it’s a pity some in his own government does not see it this way .
Venezuela left CAN in april 2006 - ostensibly because CAN countries trade with the USA (Chavez=hypocrite; Venezuelan industrialists are quite at ease with this), and tried to get back in in August 2007. Chavez says he wants to be part of both CAN and Mercosur. Mercosur wants to keep him out for obvious reasons and are using Paraguay's defered vote as the mechanism.
Apr 05th, 2011 - 11:09 pm 0Venezuela is a weak manufacturing country with (for as long as it lasts) oil-shale heavy oil.
However, it can 'compete' pretty effectively with Paraguay, in the sense that Paraguay provides for Venezuela's food needs = complementarity.
Venezuela can compete against Argentina because of the inherent weakness of the Argentinian economy.
Venezuela will find it difficult to compete against up-and-coming Uruguay, and it is and will forever be totally swamped by Brasil's general economy, its competitive oil economy, and its manufacture.
As Mercosur matures, many special trade arrangements with 'outside bodies' such as the USA & China will have to be dropped or severely modified (the UK had to do this - with much pain) .
Harmonisation of rates at which internal and external trade will be conducted could kill off Venezuela (and minor Mercosur partners) if this is arrived at without sensitivity.
The Venezuelan industrial/business community must not be left out in the cold by Chavez acting as a 'One Man Band'. In the meantime, this community should assert its political strength, develop their competitiveness, and make industry-to-industry links with Mercosur members where possible.
If this is not possible because of Chavez, then Venezuela must get rid of Chavez or get rid of industry and business.
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