Jayson, If I am not mistaken, at this point this is really just a form of barter arrangement between these countries with the terms of barter expressed in monetary units and which may involve some elements of subsidy by Venezuela in the form of less than international market prices for oil (though I am sure the value of the medical services provided by the Cuban doctors and other medical staff is worth more than the cost to Venezuela of trying to provide its own medical staff or sourcing it from the international market.) It seems to me to be similar in many ways to the arrangements between Cuba and the Soviet Union before the latter's disintegration where, in essense, oil and industrial imputs were exchanged for sugar, outside of regular international markets, and which involved significant subsidies by the Soviet Union of Cuban agriculture and industry. In short, these arrangements allow countries with comparative or absolute advantages in necessary goods and services, to trade within their own region but outside of international markets (necessary, in this case, because of the American blockade) these goods and services at 'prices' that reflect their own development needs and priorities and not those of global (capitalist) markets dominated by imperial developed countries. In this sense, these arrangements are good for developing economies when practiced between themselves. However, it goes against the grain of globalized markets pushed by the WTO etc because it closes off these markets from domination by the imperial powers.
Paul P Jayson Funke wrote:
In some sense, aren't Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia adopting some form of complementary currency through their alternative trade pact (Cuba's exchange of medical knowledge/expertise, sending its doctors to these countries and training students at Cuban universities, in exchange for oil or other vital resources)? As far as I know, there is not a great deal of capital flowing between the three nations (please correct me if I am wrong here), but there is still a substantial amount of trade occurring. Could this system not provide the basis for an alternative to neoliberal (or even Keynesian at that) models of development that are structured to siphon wealth out of developing nations? Thanks Jayson Funke Graduate School of Geography Clark University 950 Main Street Worcester, MA 01610 "The great reigns are only the enlarged projections of little thieves." - Saint Augustine
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