Transcript ALBA & Petrocaribe An Alternative to Neo

ALBA
To Join Or Not to Join?
Norman Girvan
Presentation at PNP Forum on “Progressive Internationalism”
UWI Mona
September 12, 2009
http://normangirvan.info
THE WORLD
HAS CHANGED
SHARE OF WORLD GDP
ASIA
China & India
1820
56
49
1950
15
9
1998
30
17
2020
42
30
Source: World Bank WDR 2009: 106; author
‘In 2020, 3 of the world’s 4 largest
economies will be Asian, with China
#1’
EIU’s 2006 Foresight Report http://graphics.eiu.com/files/ad_pdfs/eiuForesight2020_WP.pdf
LATIN AMERICA HAS CHANGED
• “In August 2007, the Associated Press
calculated that Chavez had promised $8.8
billion in aid, financing, and energy funding to
Latin America and the Caribbean between
January and August 2007, a figure far higher
than the $1.6 billion of U.S. assistance for the
entire year”.
/
COHA, Venezuela’s Oil Based Economy http://www.cfr.org/publication/12089
PETROCARIBE IS NOW THE LARGEST
‘AID DONOR’ IN THE CARIBBEAN
• From June 2005 to the end of 2007 Petrocaribe
concessionary loans averaged $468 million/year;
U.S. Aid was running at approx. 340 million/year;
and IDB disbursements about $100 million/year
• Jamaica received $471 M in Petrocaribe loans
from June 2005 to March 2008; US assistance FYs
2005-2007 amounted to $58 million.
LATIN AMERICA HAS CHANGED!
• Blockage of US-promoted FTAA Project
• UNASUR—The Union of South American Nations. Guyana and
Suriname.
• IIRSA – Initiative for Infrastructure Integration of South
• ALBA – Alternative to free trade (neoliberal) integration
• The 1st Latin American and Caribbean Summit - December
2008
• The 5th Summit of the Americas - April 2009
• the OAS General Assembly - June 2009
‘THE ERA OF US HEGEMONY IN LATIN AMERICA IS OVER’ – Council
of American Affairs COHA
UNASUR SUMMIT ENDS WITH CALL
FOR PEACE IN SOUTH AMERICA
August 29 2009
UNASUR stressed that "the presence of foreign military
forces cannot, with its means and linked resources to goals,
threaten the sovereignty and integrity of any South American
nations and, in consequence, the peace and security of the
region."
Obama is missing a great
opportunity to put US-LAC relations
on a new footing
• 5th Summit of the Americas “we seek a new beginning in our
relations”
• “I am opposed to the violent overthrow of democratically
elected governments”
• Suspicions of US complicity in Honduras coup
• Perceived collusion of US State Department with illegal
regime—failure to designate it a ‘coup’
• Colombia-US agreement for the use of bases conferring a
continental reach for US forces; opposed by the vast majority
of LAC nations
• UNASUR Summit August 09; Declaration, Lula-Obama
conversation
NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
• Organizations of Indigenous, Afro-Latin
American, Campesinos, women, Green, and
other anti-neoliberal groups
• World Social Forum – Annual since 2001
• Role in the election of Lula (Brazil, 2002);
Morales (Bolivia, 2004); Correa (Ecuador, 200);
and in shaping policies in other countries
• National Resistance Front in Honduras
Declaration of Indigenous People
2009 World Social Forum, Belem
The crisis of Western capitalist civilization requires us to rebuild and reinvent
new and different options of coexistence between nature and society,
democracy, the state and patterns of consumption. It points to the
adoption new ways of living and in this context, it is not just that ‘other
worlds are possible’, they are urgent, indeed they are being and have been
built from the time of the first victims of the most barbaric forms of
capitalist violence in the / colonial / modern and contemporary era. We,
the Indigenous Peoples and Communities, Originarios, Campesinos,
Ribereños, Quilombolas, Afrodescendientes, Garífunas, Caboclos, Dalits,
and others, and their children who migrated to the ghettoes of the cities,
and all the other excluded, invisible and ‘ untouchables’ of the planet who
continue to resist, to strengthen and to update alternative forms of social,
technological, ethical, political, economic, , cultural and spiritual
organization of the human existence.
http://alainet.org/active/28734
National Gathering of Afro-Honduran Youth Calls for a
November 2010 Plebiscite so the Honduran People Can Vote on
a New Constitution
Seventy-five young community organizers met on August 27, 28 and 29
in La Ceiba, Honduras, and authored this declaration calling for a
November 2010 referendum for a new Constitution. D.R. 2009, Samuel
Molina..
ALBA – The Bolivarian Alliance for
the People of Our America
• Launched 2004 by Venezuela and Cuba
• Members now include Bolivia, Nicaragua,
Dominica, Honduras, Ecuador, Antigua and
Barbuda and St Vincent and the Grenadines –
73 m. population, $669 billion GDP
• Alternative to neoliberal integration based on
reciprocal free trade, freedom of investment,
and ‘market friendly’ policies
• Series of Inter-governmental agreements
ALBA GUIDING PRINCIPLES
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People-oriented – social on par with economic
Solidarity
Complementarity
Compensatory financing for the treatment of
asymmetries
• Differential treatment of countries according
to their circumstances
ALBA PRINCIPLES AND RULES
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Trade and investment to be instruments of fair and sustainable development with
effective participation of the State.
Special and differentiated treatment for participating countries according to their
level of development and size
Economic complementarity and cooperation between countries to preserve
efficient and productive specialization and balanced economic development
Cooperation and solidarity for a Continental fight against illiteracy provide free
healthcare and a scholarship programme.
Creation of a Social Emergency Fund
Integrated development of communications and transport
Protection of the environment
Energy integration
Promotion of intra-Latin American Investment through a Latin American
Investment Bank, a Bank of Development of the South and a Latin American
Society of Reciprocal Guarantees
Defense of cultural identity: creation of TELESUR.
Intellectual Property Rights to protect the patrimony of the region while not
becoming an obstacle to cooperation
Harmonization of positions in multilateral fora, including democratization of
international organizations particularly the United Nations system.
CARIBBEAN ALBA
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The fight against poverty and social exclusion
Joint Plan for food security
Power and mining development for the development of
joint production chains
Portfolio of integrated investments
Academic and cultural exchange
Tourism—cooperation in human resource development, air
transport, and other areas
Environmental conservation
Caribbean regional market—intra-regional trade
Prevention and management of natural disasters
PRACTICE
• Concessional financing for energy import bills
• Use for state-owned industries, physical and
social infrastructure,
• Support for projects in health and education
that directly benefit the poor
• Non-reciprocal trading arrangements.
ALBA TRADE AGREEMENTS
• Non-reciprocity - Cuba agreed to grant duty-free
access to Venezuelan imports and to remove non-tariff
barriers; while in return Venezuela has agreed to
eliminate only non-tariff barriers on Cuban imports
• Compensated trade - through direct product
exchanges – Dominica is allowed to pay for 40 percent
of its Petrocaribe oil imports with exports of bananas
• Trade agreements negotiated on a case-by-case basis,
allowing for flexibility of commitment according to
country circumstances.
• Reciprocal Credit Arrangements Venezuela-Cuba
Agreement.
ALBA FINANCIAL COOPERATION IS
POWERED BY VENEZUELA
• $100 million to Bolivia on joining ALBA additional $30 million for infrastructure
• ALBA Caribe Fund linked to Petrocaribe
• ALBA Bank - authorized capital of $2 billion
subscribed capital of $1 billion.
ALBA SOCIAL COOPERATION IS
POWERED BY CUBA
• 30,000 Cuban doctors providing free medical services to the poor in
LAC
• 70,000 students are receiving training as health professionals
• Over 2 million made literate in literacy programmes
• 600,000 people have ‘had their sight restored via Operation
Miracle’
• 2000 Cuban scholarships per year for Venezuela, 5000 Cuban
medical scholarships for Bolivia.
• Dominica - over 100 students attending Cuban medical and nursing
schools; approximately 75 Dominican students are in other Cuban
schools. 2,000 Venezuelan and Cuban scholarships are available to
qualified Dominican students in computer science, medicine,
engineering, sports, physics, math, and agriculture’.
Some Recent Developments
• June 09: Change in Petrocaribe terms: 50% paid in cash; 50%
to accrue to “Integrated Petrocaribe Fund” managed by ALBA
Bank for approved projects;
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http://www.pdvsa.com/index.php?tpl=interface.sp/design/biblioteca/readdoc.tpl.html&newsid_obj_id=7756&newsid_temas=111
http://www.pdvsa.com/index.php?tpl=interface.sp/design/biblioteca/readdoc.tpl.html&newsid_obj_id=6283&newsid_temas=111
• ALBA Bank approved $50 M loan to St Kitts & Nevis June 09;
$10 M immediate disbursement – June 09 PDVSA 12/06/09
• Dominica: Opening of fuel distribution and supply plant
constructed with Petrocaribe funds – June 09
• Dominica: ‘Housing Revolution’ programme financed by
Petrocaribe: 50 “Petrohouses” ready for assembly; 3000 built,
5% for public sector employees--teachers and police—41 to
go to Carib reservation and primary school
• ALBA Bank to provide financial advice to
Petrocaribe
• ALBA Caribbean Fund ‘has financed 84 projects in
11 countries with investment of $222 million’ ABN
11/06/09
• Food ALBA - $7 M approved for non-reimbursable
financing for projects in 8 countries including
Jamaica
• Petrocaribe: 8 refinery projects have been built
with PC money, adding 580000 b/d
• ALBA Maritime Transport: Fleet of 2 ships for
transport of crude to Caribbean destinations
ALBA Social Movements Network
• Constructing integration from below from the
people
• Boosting ALBA and people solidarity
• Opposing the imperialist project
• Mobilising against the coup in Honduras
POTENTIAL NEGATIVES OF ALBA
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Donor dependency
Energy dependency
Economic vulnerability
Political vulnerability
State-centric, as opposed to ‘grassroots’ or communitybased development
Capital intensive, potentially environmentally damaging
projects
Transparency/accountability issues
Potential for corruption
Democratic, participatory governance should be integral to
ALBA
ALBA: TO JOIN OR NOT TO JOIN?
• Caricom-ALBA agreement is the ideal arrangement,
but some Caricom countries are opposed
• Although Petrocaribe is not tied to ALBA membership,
the ALBA Bank will now handle Petrocaribe credits.
• Membership would give a say in the ALBA Bank and
access to ALBA inter-governmental cooperation
projects, e.g. Food, Shipping, trade bartering, common
current -‘sucre’
• ALBA membership would expand room to maneuver in
development policies by providing support to state
enterprises and cooperatives
THE CONS
• Possible undermining of Caricom/CSME
– ALBA Trade agreements are not incompatible with CSME;
but ALBA membership could create a distraction to CSME
completion
– ALBA Foreign Policy activism could ‘cut across’ Caricom
foreign policy coordination
– But Caricom governments should stop dilly-dallying and
shilly-shallying about the reform of Caricom governance if
they want the Community to be taken seriously
• Fear that ALBA membership will strain traditional relation
with US
Links
• ALBA, Petrocaribe and Caricom, Norman
Girvan
• Movimientos Sociales con el ALBA
• ALBA website
• Petrocaribe website