Venezuela Wto Trade Topic Model Un Position Paper

Committee: World Trade Organization
Topic: Aid For Trade
Country: Venezuela
School: The Kew Forest School

The most important thing to know about Venezuela is that it is an oil exporting country, the fifth largest in the world, with the largest reserves of conventional oil (light and heavy crude) in the western hemisphere and the largest reserves of non-conventional oil (extra-heavy crude) in the world.
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela believes that the Aid for Trade Program is cynical and hypocritical attempt by the United States, Europe and transnational corporations to continue the exploitation of the developed world by imposing “free trade” while preserving protectionist measures such as agricultural subsidies that benefit the developed worlds. As our President Hugo Chavez recently stated, “ Capitalism is the reign of corruption. Everything that has happened with the big corporations, the big banks, the big insurance companies, what is it? Corruption. Corruption of values, fraud against the people, theft from the citizenry.” Venezuela opposes the liberal “free market” model that supports agricultural subsidy programs for the producers of the developed countries while imposing conditions of dependency on the agricultural sectors of poor countries. Subsidized over production in the developed world leads to environmental degradation and falling process in the developing world pushing millions into poverty. The developed world will then seek to pry open the service sectors of the developing world to transnational corporations so that they can dominate and sweep away local businesses and exploit labor markets. Unfair western trade practices are an important contributing factor to this tragedy, preventing the development of agricultural industries in many states by means of tariffs and subsidies.

With the rising popularity of capitalism and the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), many nations entered into free trade agreements hoping to better their own economic situation. While this may have helped developed nations involved in the free trade agreements, it hurt developing nations and those nations that were excluded. Essentially, those who could not compete fell further behind. When Venezuela had become known for their oil reserves many major corporations like Royal Dutch Shell and then Rockefeller’s Standard Oil became major producers of oil in Venezuela, this had an immediate and dramatic impact on the country’s economy, known among economists as “The Dutch Disease.” Dutch disease is an economic concept that tries to explain the apparent relationship between the exploitation of natural resources and a decline in the manufacturing sector combined with moral fallout. The most important consequence of the “Dutch Disease,” was that agricultural production declined to almost nothing and the country fell behind in industrializing, relative to other Latin American countries. There needs exist an organization that is not entirely controlled by corrupt powers such as the US or any European Nation instead it should be run by separate regional groups The purpose of this initiative is to give developing states an incentive to eliminate protectionist policies and practice free trade. Venezuela has benefited from rising oil, which has provided our nation with considerable wealth. Venezuela does not look favorably upon free trade that is governed and controlled by wealthy nations, instead it believes that there should be equal representation and divided power among all nations both developed and undeveloped.

Venezuela would want to eliminate the ability of WTO trade rules to overturn nation-state laws and practices that protect health, the environment, development and human rights. We favor protecting local, national and international environmental and social laws from unfair challenges by ensuring that all relevant dispute forums are required to give a presumption of validity to national and local laws and policies. We want to insure full transparency and accountability within the committee. Venezuela favors a global economy that advances opportunity for all people and not unbridled capitalism that encourages the states of the developing world to compete with each other in a race to the bottom to attract foreign direct investment. Venezuela opposes the liberal model that supports agricultural subsidies for the producers of the developed countries while imposing conditions of dependency.