Felicity Lawrence, consumer affairs correspondent Monday May 19, 2003 The Guardian

The government's policy of liberalising trade and removing protectionist measures such as subsidies and tariffs is dangerous for millions in the developing world, the former trade and industry secretary Stephen Byers says, showing a remarkable change of heart, in the Guardian today.

Mr Byers led the UK delegation to the world trade talks in Seattle in 1999 and was responsible for pushing the government's agenda to make developing countries open up their markets to international competition. Removing protectionist measures is still a plank of Labour policy.

Mr Byers said he had changed his mind after a personal visit to Africa.

"I was aware of the arguments, but it's not until you see first hand the consequences of policies, that you see they need to be changed."

It was "getting away from Whitehall and the persuasive arguments of trade policy experts" and discovering the plight of ordinary farmers in developing countries that made the difference.

Aid organisations welcomed his comments as an important turning point in the debate on globalisation.

Andrew Pendleton, a Christian Aid spokesman, said: "This is incredibly significant. It is the first time we've heard from someone close to the heart of government that making developing countries open their markets is very damaging."

Oxfam, which has campaigned against the current trade rules, called on the government to listen to Mr Byers.

"The fact that a former trade minister who helped negotiate the current trade rules has come out and rejected established trade orthodoxies is remarkable.

"This should make our government radically rethink the impact of its policies on poor people around the world ahead of the WTO [World Trade Organisation] meeting in Cancun," said Justin Forsyth, its policy director.

Mr Byers says: "The course of international trade since 1945 shows that an unfettered global market can fail the poor, and that full trade liberalisation brings huge risks and rarely provides the desired outcome.

"The evidence shows that the benefits that would flow from increased international trade will not materialise if markets are simply left alone.

"When this happens, liberalisation is used by the rich and powerful international players to make quick gains from short term investments."

He has been converted to a "regime of managed trade in which markets are slowly opened up ... with subsidies and tariffs being used to achieve development goals."

His new thinking was dismissed as "ill-informed" by the former head of the economics and statistics department of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, David Henderson.

Professor Henderson said: "The widening of the gap between the rich countries and many of the poor ones cannot be blamed on globalisation."

"None of these factors explains the current problems of, for example, North Korea under Kim, Liberia and Somalia under their respective warlords, or Venezuela under Chavez." Internal influences, including the actions of their governments, were what had kept them poor, he said.

The Department for International Development maintains that free and fair trade is best achieved by removing barriers through the WTO.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, May 18, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Seeking explanations for President Hugo Chavez Frias' constant use of religious expressions,  taking out a crucifix from his pocket and calling Jesus Christ, "Commander-in-Chief of the Revolution," opposition and foreign critics have been hard-pushed to sell the Chavez-is-a Communist card. 

The opposition and Catholic Church leaders have also been using religious symbols, such as Our Lady of Coromoto to counter an alleged Communist takeover of Venezuela. 

Jesuit Ignacio Castillo says there has been an historic link between religion, religious symbols and socio-political realities, which is present in societies that preach separation between Religion and State. 

The phenomenon in Venezuela has been a stumbling-block to orthodox Marxists and Capitalists in equal doses ... it seems that religious faith continues to agglutinate and move social sectors both for and against change. 

"We are in a situation where religious symbols have been taken as political banners giving rise to extremes, such as trucks laden with holy water spraying opposition followers and some presidential gestures ... inside the government there must be a lot of Marxists biting their tongues every time Chavez Frias takes out his crucifix." 

Castillo criticizes the use of religious symbols to prove that God is on one's sides ... "as a Christian, I believe that no power is sacred and I cannot identify God with any historical situation." To do so, Castillo affirms, is dangerous because it locates the political debate in terms of a struggle between religious symbols and appeals to the emotions. "When I identify the sacred with a political tendency, I am practicing fundamentalism." 

Castillo also criticizes the President's use of New Testament quotes as quite "de-contextualized" or out of context. 

The Jesuit hints that Chavez Frias has been influenced by the Evangelicals ... "it was especially strong during his period in jail at Yare ... but his religiosity has touches of syncretism from wandering souls (animas) to Santeria ... really postmodern ... anything goes in his speeches."

Like many other Venezuelans, Chavez Frias, Castillo contends is the son of (Venezuelan religious icons) Maria Lionza and Jose Gregorio Hernandez as well as folklore figures: Dona Barbara and Martin Valiente.

Castillo's colleague, Pedro Trigo adds another perspective, suggesting that before one can assess the use of religious symbols in a political context, it is important to remember biblical history. "The Roman Empire Procurator ordered Jesus' execution on behalf of the Jewish political-religious leaders ... he was executed as a rebel for political motives." 

The accusation was false, of course, because two powers came together to get rid of someone, who wasn't political or a military threat to Rome, who wasn't armed but who did provoke a more dangerous movement. 

Trigo says the problem lies in the use of religious symbols and the behavior of those who use them. "From a Christian point of view, holding crucifixes or using Statues of the Virgin Mary do not guarantee honesty of the acts that are shielded behind such expressions of faith."

Castillo highlights the use of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary by government and opposition. "It's a symbolic struggle between the two symbols: Jesus who uses a whip to rid the Temple of corrupt tradesmen and the Virgin symbolizing motherhood and a peaceful side supposedly identified with the opposition's attitude." 

There is belief among the more religious opponents of the government that Chavez Frias is afraid of the Virgin, which could explain the use of pilgrimages  and a rash of apparitions and statues of the Virgin with tears etc.

Castillo jokes that Chavez Frias has made Jesus Christ fight with the Virgin.  However, it could boil down to a struggle between (synchretized) Catholics and Evangelicals for the soul of Venezuela ... Catholics desperate to hold on to what they had and the Evangelicals to make inroads.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, May 18, 2003 By: David Coleman

Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) output at its 940,000 barrels per day capacity Paraguana refinery stands at 734,000 bpd with the 635,000 bpd Amuay plant processing 477,000 bpd and the 305,000 bpd Cardon plant at 257,000 bpd according to a company press release ... the Cardon and Amuay plants form the Paraguana refinery complex which usually processes at around 780,000 bpd.

Production throughout Venezuela's 1.3 million bpd refining network has been almost completely restored after the end of a 2-month national stoppage which failed to overthrow the reformist government of President Hugo Chavez Frias.

• The Paraguana complex was to have restarted exports of reformulated gasoline (RFG) on Friday with a shipment of 300,000 barrels to the United States.

PDVSA officials had earlier said they would restart RFG exports between May 12-14 with some eight cargoes of 250,000-300,000 barrels a month to the US ... a total of 1 million barrels of RFG is scheduled to be exported this month.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, May 18, 2003 By: Calvin Tucker

International commentarist Calvin Tucker writes: Over a hundred people packed into a room at Friends Meeting House in London Friday to hear a first hand report from members of an international women’s group that recently returned from Venezuela.

To loud applause from the audience, co-organizer Selma James described how the Bolivarian Revolution of Hugo Chavez Frias as empowering ordinary Venezuelan women to defend their rights at work and in the home. "Co-operatives are being set up. There is new women’s bank. People in Venezuela are transforming themselves. Look at their faces. That’s what the Revolution is all about."

A Bolivarian Circle UK representative told the meeting how important it is to get the real facts about the Revolution publicized and not to allow the hostile private media to distort and twist the truth. Another speaker spoke of the destabilization and coup attempts in Venezuela and their similarity with the US-orchestrated overthrow of the Allende government in Chile in 1973. The speaker finished by sounding a note of caution: "Chavez has won some key battles against the opposition, but he has yet to win the war"

The delegation, organized by Women’s Global Strike, spent two weeks touring the barrios with a video camera, filming ordinary citizens and asking what the Revolution meant to them. Women cleaners from one workplace in Caracas told of how, for years, they had been exploited by greedy employers and made to work for a pittance.

• The Chavez Frias government had helped them to set up a co-operative ... now they earn twice as much pay and work less hours.

In another sequence, hotel workers were shown describing how the CTV union leadership was failing to protect their interests and really represented the employers and the coup plotters. In protest, the workers had left the CTV and joined a pro-worker union.

Calvin Tucker writes on British and international issues for the British monthly "Straight Left". In November 2001 Tucker correctly predicted a coup attempt after becoming convinced that the United States of America was preparing for a coup against Venezuela's elected President Hugo Chavez Frias

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic news Posted: Sunday, May 18, 2003 By: Oliver L. Campbell

VHeadline.com commentarist Oliver L. Campbell writes: I refer to the news that Captain José Vielma is to be the new head of the Venezuelan Tax Office.

One day, when I was in PDVSA, a Tax Inspector asked to see me ... he told me they were going to carry out an audit of the tax paid by PDVSA’s employees. I could not refuse this request, but told him. in no uncertain terms. no one escaped paying tax on his or her salary because the deductions were all computerized as part of the payroll program.

I was sufficiently annoyed to ask him why he did not go round to the Colegio Medico, el Colegio de Abogados, el Colegio de Ingenieros and all the other professional colleges and ask for a list of their members ... they could then check if all those members had all made tax returns and, if so, how much income they had declared.

• The tax law at that time allowed the Inspector to look at the taxpayer’s lifestyle and make an estimate of his income (estimado de oficio) which the latter could only refute with evidence.

The Inspector, a nice guy, was quite honest with me ... he told me he had to meet a numerical target of inspections and, that by coming to PDVSA, he could increase the number quickly with relatively little effort. He agreed it was unlikely he would find anything amiss with the employees’ tax payments as made by the company.

When I lived in Caracas, I resided in a pleasant urbanization that was in a cul-de-sac. Because it was so small, we knew our neighbors quite well and often socialized, mainly with barbecues or small dinner parties. My neighbors were mostly professional people in private practice and earning much more than myself. However, as we got to know one another better, I soon found out I was paying far more tax than they did. My tax was automatically deducted from salary, whereas they paid ... in fact underpaid ... on the basis of what they declared as their earnings.

This problem is not restricted to Venezuela.

Those in private practice or with their own businesses the world over have ... and take ... the opportunity to under-declare their taxable income. The difference is that most developed countries know this, and the tax inspectors devote more effort to those people than they do to salaried employees.

In the UK, the tax inspector can estimate such peoples’ income from their lifestyle e.g. where they live, what sort of a house they have, if they send their children to private schools, where they spend their holidays, what clubs they belong to, how may cars they have, etc.

The onus is then on the taxpayer to refute his estimate i.e. you are guilty until proven innocent ... this is tough, but it is the only way to make sure they pay their fair share of tax.

I hope Captain Vielma will not mind receiving some advice from one who realizes how important it is the government increase tax collections.

a) Forget about employees in medium and large companies whose tax is deducted through the payroll. Unless the employer is a crook, everyone will pay tax and of the correct amount. b) Do not set targets for checking employees’ tax payments. Make sure effort is directed where extra tax can be collected. c) Go round to all the “colegios” and obtain a list of their members. Check out all members who are not full-time, salaried employees. Do not be afraid to make estimated assessments of their income (estimado de oficio). d) Start keeping statistics of the average gross margins for each type of business. It will soon be possible to see those which are out of line and need to be checked. e) With limited resources, the inspectors must make a list of priorities geared, not to numerical targets of inspections, but to those most likely to increase collections. f) Pay your inspectors a good wage so they are not led into temptation.

Finally I wish Captain Vielma all the best in his most challenging position.

Oliver L Campbell, MBA, DipM, FCCA, ACMA, MCIM  was born in El Callao in 1931 where his father worked in the gold mining industry.  He spent the WWII years in England, returning to Venezuela in 1953 to work with Shell de Venezuela (CSV), later as Finance Coordinator at Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).  In 1982 he returned to the UK with his family and retired early in 2002.  Campbell returns frequently to Venezuela and maintains an active interest in political affairs: "I am most passionate about changing the education system so that those who are not academically inclined can have the chance to learn a useful skill ... the main goal, of course, is to allow many of the poor to get well paid jobs as artisans and technicians."  You may contact Oliver L Campbell at email: oliver@lbcampbell.com