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Venezuela asks private companies to trade with Asia and the Middle East to limit the effect of sanctions: sources
Nicolás Maduro’s government has begun to promote in Venezuela that businessmen are the ones who export and import from countries in Asia and the Middle East, as the best way to circumvent US sanctions by reducing the role of public entities in international trade. , they said. four sources informed about the conversations.
The ongoing plan has succeeded in expanding trade relations with countries such as Turkey and Iran, allies of the Maduro government, which have sent food, medicine and fuel to Venezuela in exchange for gold. And this year it also allowed Venezuelan businessmen to sell products in Iraq, Malaysia, India or the United Arab Emirates, port figures indicate.
Newly appointed Finance Minister Delcy Rodríguez has been pursuing the strategy of opening markets to circumvent a large package of sanctions for about a year, sources said, which has paved the way for private companies to export mangoes to Iran or import. mango paste. Turkey.
As soon as he took office in September, Rodríguez created a deputy ministry of foreign trade to define the lines of work and months earlier he had sent collaborators from the world of diplomats and international lawyers to countries in Asia and the Middle East to promote the idea. according to a review of decrees and official documents.
Channeling trade through private Venezuelan companies makes business more attractive to foreign partners because they face a lower risk of violating sanctions than negotiating directly with the government, the sources say. Local companies exporting fruit or beans also encounter fewer obstacles in moving business beyond America or Europe, they added.
While the total volume of trade remains low, it is a sign of the government’s effort to circumvent sanctions, pending the new Biden administration, which has shown little sign of preparing more measures for Maduro.
“They have opened a new game. They are creating a new institutional framework for dealing with sanctions, ”said a source from the financial sector who witnessed the discussions. “There is a transition from the West to other markets in Asia and the Middle East. With the difference that they will allow international and local private entities to participate in business without the government being involved, ”he added.
Rodríguez, along with expert diplomacy consultants, participated in virtual forums and meetings with local and foreign companies to discuss foreign trade, according to consulted sources and public documents.
The attitude of the officials represents a further step in the abandonment of strict state controls on the economy by a government that for years maintained regulations, nationalized companies and was also interested in participating in all business with allied nations.
“I have legally authorized the export of up to 30% of the products. We will transform Venezuela into an exporting country, “Maduro said in a speech two months ago, which contrasts with the many years in which his team has restricted the flow of food abroad and placed obstacles in the management of the exchange.
The ministries of information and finance did not respond to requests for comment.
Business people standing in line
Trade agreements with more distant nations are reflected in data provided by Import Genius, a consultancy that collects customs records for the import and export industry. The figures show the volumes, but not the associated monetary values.
According to these figures, this year at least 35 Venezuelan companies made purchases in Turkey in the first six months of the year, when only 7 of them had already done so last year. The companies brought in 140,000 tons of products including pasta, oil and canned meat in June 2020.
Cuspal, the state entity that imported goods from Turkey in 2018 and 2019 this year blocked imports from that country, the data show. But Turkish food was offered to government employees in food sales programs in November. The Ministry of Food, which oversees Cuspal, did not respond to a request for comment.
A company called Casa Fresca shipped 122 tons of mangoes and 200 tons of pineapples to Iran in July, the company’s executive director Luz Rodríguez told state television in August, adding that the company’s goal is to export fruit. exotic. in the Middle East.
The executive director and Casa Fresca did not respond to requests for comment.
In contrast, the Freemed Group, which calls itself an importer and distributor of food, medicine and cosmetics, imported 4.6 tons of sildenafil, which is used to treat erectile dysfunction, this year, according to port data. Through an Instagram account it also offers drugs for hypertension and heart produced by Iranian laboratories.
Freemed did not respond to a request for comment.
In July, an Iranian company installed a supermarket, which mostly sells products from that country, in a place that belonged to a supermarket chain expropriated by the government in 2010. The vice president was present at the inauguration, broadcast on state television. Rodriguez.
Venezuela hadn’t bought any goods from Iran since 2006, and in June of this year, companies imported more than 2,000 tons of food and medicine, according to Import Genius port records.
With Iraq, a nation with which there has been no trade in a decade, a group of cattle ranchers sold the meat twice in 2020. That operation had government help, a source said. agricultural sector.
Producers exported 10,700 tons of Chinese beans to Malaysia, India, Philippines, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates for the first time. Another group of entrepreneurs sold 12,000 tons of shrimp in Asian markets as of June, six times more than they shipped to that region in the same period in 2019.
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