Posted on 05/18/2006 7:15:25 AM PDT by Isara
Latin America: Ecuador's government deserves all the trouble it's got coming now that it's decided expropriation is the way to get rich. But the trouble won't come from the U.S. It's headed their way from Ecuadoreans.
...
The loss of Ecuador's hard-won free-trade pact with the U.S., something it was on the razor's edge of signing, is virtually guaranteed. Ecuador also will probably lose all practical access to U.S. markets when its 2006 Andean trade preferences expire.
Two free-trade-pact neighbors, Peru and Colombia, will gladly help themselves to Ecuador's market share in exports of flowers, shrimp and other regional specialties.
About 60% of Ecuador's economy is based on those exports, so more than half the economy stands to collapse.
What Ecuador's government has done is throw away access to a $11 trillion market in exchange for $1 billion in illegally expropriated assets from a U.S. oil company.
Blame can be laid at the feet of populist groups with no grasp of how wealth is created. In addition, local media accuse politicians of taking bribes from China and Venezuela for access to Oxy's oil fields. All oppose the free-trade pact with the U.S.
...
Long term, Occidental won't lose that much. The real price will be paid by the many small and midsize businesses that make up Ecuador's private sector. They need markets and unanimously want free trade. This year, tens of thousands of them took to the streets, waving the roses they export, to make that demand known.
Chambers of commerce, led by the biggest one in Quito, are uniting, and daily protests are in the works. Businesses are also ready to declare a tax strike to get the message across that any government that would destroy 60% of the economy is illegitimate.
Radical measures perhaps,.. But what else can you do .....
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
When are we going to start drilling in ANWAR, the Gulf of Mexico,...?
Possibly when it's too damned late.
Mexico election will be held next month. Don't you think China, Cuba and Venezuela will try to influence the outcome?
Our politicians of both parties aspire to bananarepublichood.
Because nations have a 200 mile exclusive economic zone as well as a territorial sea, what you suggest is impossible.
Venezuela has already been donating millions to the leftist/communist candidates campaign.
Oops, forgot a sentence. There is nowhere in the Gulf of Mexico that is not covered by the exclusive economic zones of Mexico and the USA.
Surely you don't think they waiting until now to peddle their influence for an election just a month away?
"Blame can be laid at the feet of populist groups with no grasp of how wealth is created."How true.Socialism in action.I assume a handfull of officials will benefit in the short term,but the people(middle class)will be the real losers.
Wasn't the plot of Frank Herbert's book "21st Century Sub" centered around US submarines collecting oil in underwater barges from secret oil wells within the territorial limits of some unfriendly countries? Been a long time since I read it. (In some editions, this book carried the title "The Dragon in the Sea.")
Herbert was much better known, of course, for the Dune series.
Jack
Given that the Chinese have strong relations with Mexico, control both ends of the Panama Canal, and have a major container port in the Bahamas (Freeport), it's a little late for that.
Besides, we owe them too much money to bitch about it. This is where the deficit really hurts us.
Looks like the start of WWIV to me. We better nuke the ChiComs before they can retaliate fully.
A few big cities and they are in the stone age.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_86_4051709,00.html
In 20 years, it won't matter.
It is already too late IMHO.
It's just disgusting what's going on. OxyPete's only crime was building roads, schools, clinics, and other help for those poor people out in the Amazon. Now they get nothing. Because there is no way the Chicoms are gonna help out like that. The Cubans will move in, if anything happens at all, and start indoctinating. It's totally disgusting.
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