<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Wednesday, May 28, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Venezuelan Ambassador to Colombia, Carlos Rodolfo Santiago has confirmed that Venezuelan businessmen will receive dollars within 15 days from the government foreign exchange administration committee (Cadivi) to pay their Colombian creditors, "if they are registered, of course ... the dollars are ready ... the problem is that only 10% of businessmen that have debts have enrolled and presented all the necessary requisites. 

According to newspaper reports, Venezuelans owe $300 million to their Colombian counterparts and Santiago says some companies such as Colombia's main airline consortium Alianza Summa, consisting of Avianca, Aces and Sam have been exonerated in part. "Even though Avianca does not have representation in Venezuela, Cadivi has authorized dollars." 

The Ambassador has also denied charges from the anti-government Venezuelan-Colombian Chamber of Commerce that the government is refusing dollars to political opponents.

"The government is giving Venezuelan importers dollars to reactivate trade with Colombia, which took a 70% dive as a result of the December-January national stoppage ... $10 million has been set aside for importers ... it's small, but will gradually increase."

The Venezuelan government's decision to attend the debt problem was taken during a meeting between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe in Puerto Ordaz last month.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Wednesday, May 28, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Speaking in Panama in preparation for the Miss Universe contest on June 3, Miss Venezuela Mariangel Ruiz denies that her last minute decision to take part in the pageant was a publicity stunt and says Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso did not pay a penny to get her to Panama. 

"Gustavo Cisneros, who is a Miss Venezuela contest sponsor put up the money after the Panamanian President insisted that Venezuela's participation at the event was very important ... Cisneros made a loan from Venevision, which also belongs to him and that is how I'm here." 

Mr. Cisneros created a minor stir last month in Venezuela when his organization announced that there wasn't enough cash to take Miss Venezuela to Panama, referring to the political situation and the government's exchange rate freeze as influencing the decision. 

Miss Venezuela (1.76 height) dismisses charges that Mr. Cisneros was playing politics. Her own family, Ruiz says, does not oppose President Hugo Chavez Frias although it is "critical and feels bad about what is happening in Venezuela."

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Wednesday, May 28, 2003 By: Eric Jackson

The Panama News editor Eric Jackson reports: In a "controversy" that lasted a few days, it was announced in Caracas that Miss Venezuela wouldn't be attending the Miss Universe pageant here because her country's economic and political crisis would not allow it.

The Venezuelan part of Miss Universe is owned by Gustavo Cisneros, the billionaire golfing and fishing buddy of former US president George H. W. Bush and owner of the Miami-based Univision cable network and the Venezuelan Venevision TV network.

Venevision has, for most of the past year, stopped taking commercial advertising, as part of the opposition's attempt to shut down the Venezuelan economy.

In April of 2002, Venevision urged viewers to march on the Presidential Palace and overthrow President Hugo Chavez Frias ... after violence broke Chavez was abducted and a would-be Chamber of Commerce/military junta briefly declared itself to be in power.

Here in Panama, the commercial media reported the Cisneros organization's claim that Miss Venezuela couldn't attend because of currency export controls imposed by the government ... without mentioning Cisneros's role in the dispute or noting that, in fact, the billionaire with ample assets already outside Venezuela was by no means too broke to send his candidate to the pageant.

• Within Venezuela, opposition media blamed Chavez for ruining Venezuela's Miss Universe hopes, while Chavez supporters sneered at the political ploy.

In the end, it seemed that most Venezuelans were not convinced by Cisneros' tactic and Miss Venezuela flew to Panama in a private plane to sign in for the competition after all.

The Panama News www.thepanamanews.com

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, May 27, 2003 By: Jose Gregorio Pineda & Jose Gabriel Angarita

VenAmCham's Jose Gregorio Pineda (chief economist) and Jose Gabriel Angarita (economist) write: At this time, Venezuela is in the midst of great instability and distortions that are exerting pressure on internal and external markets. Political and social conflict, as well as the economic paralysis stimulated to a great degree by exchange and price controls, stand out. All these elements can be significantly endangering Venezuela's participation in foreign trade, given that our commercial partners could be taking measures to replace the absence of Venezuelan products in their respective markets.

The handling of economic policy, above all the intention of the Government to continue with a strongly restrictive policy toward the delivery of foreign exchange to economic sectors has had an effect on opinion. This is the case of the member countries of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN), who a few weeks ago gave a time limit to Venezuela to at least make the exchange system more flexible.

Simultaneously, these countries are trying to promote negotiations for a bilateral agreement with the United States, in the first place because of the delay in the agenda of the Americas Free Trade Treaty (AFTT) and perhaps because of the reduction of sales to Venezuela, the other member country, to avoid a contraction of markets for their products. This situation could be further affected by the perspectives of Venezuela's actions in the commercial sector, given its open refusal to advance negotiations to join AFTT.

Other commercial partners who seek commercial alternatives to reduce the negative consequences provoked by exchange control in Venezuela include the Group of Three (G-3), Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela. The need to compensate the absence of Venezuela in commercial trade could mean losses of more than $1 billion in Venezuelan exports.

The difficult environment in which Venezuela is operating, the high dependence on the petroleum sector, the existence of an anti-export bias and a lack of competitiveness of the non-petroleum sector are sufficient obstacles to assume a more open commercial policy, but the new exchange control measures could come to represent an important loss for Venezuela given that its commercial partners are looking for new markets.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Monday, May 26, 2003 By: Jose Gregorio Pineda & Jose Gabriel Angarita

VenAmCham's Jose Gregorio Pineda (chief economist) and Jose Gabriel Angarita (economist) write: The negotiations for the creation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) are now stuck in a situation of divergent perceptions that may set back the timetable. Colombia and Peru, both member countries of the Andean Community (ACN), have announced their interest is bilateral negotiations with the United States, basing their initiative on Chile's experience.

But it is known that there is a mistaken impression (according to ACN Secretary General Guillermo Fernandez de Soto) that the United States is trying to pursue such bilateral negotiations. On the contrary, following the meetings between Bush and Uribe, plus the visit to the US Trade Representative's Office, the intention is to strengthen the negotiations for creation of the FTAA.

The proposal put forward by these ACN members ... to engage in bilateral negotiations reflecting the Chilean experience ... should be carefully examined, because Chile's situation is different; it has a productive and commercial structure unlike those of the Andean countries. "A strategy like this, pursued over 12 years under unique conditions, complete with a process of training for negotiators and persistent lobbying in Washington, is very difficult to replicate by other countries in a short-term bilateral adventure," asserted Fernandez de Soto.

Among the arguments in favor of this approach is that it would make it possible to evade the results of the World Trade Organization's Doha Round, with which the developing countries could obtain direct agreements on agricultural subsidies rather than having to rely on the multilateral mechanism. Fernandez de Soto finds it inexplicable that some Andean countries might want to give up something that has not yet even been negotiated in the Doha Round.

There is no trade agreement in which ALL sectors come out ahead; there are only trade agreements whose short and long-term economic benefits are big enough to compensate for the sectors that might be injured in the short term. It is up to the negotiators to identify those sectors and have the skill to obtain the best possible terms for their countries, establishing internal compensatory and adjustment mechanisms to guarantee the political viability of the agreements' implementation.

That is why, though there may be doubts regarding the desirability of seeking bilateral agreements between the ACN and the United States versus directly working for the FTAA ... some ACN member countries have recognized the importance to their countries' development of pursuing trade integration with the United States.

This understanding does not, unfortunately, seem to be shared by the Venezuelan authorities, who openly refuse to negotiate for our country's accession to the FTAA.