Spain and Venezuela trade agreement
Spain and Venezuela signed on Friday the 24th of October an agreement under which Spain will buy crude oil from the Andean nation and will use the proceeds to purchase technology from Spanish companies.
The agreement was signed at a ceremony at Madrid’s Viana Palace by the Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos and his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro.
At a joint press conference, Moratinos and Maduro announced the signing of the accord as well as a deal valued at 3 billion euros for the Spanish company CAF to build railways in Venezuela.
The energy pact establishes that the money with which Spain will buy Venezuelan crude oil will go to a fund with which Venezuela will buy technology from Spanish companies.
Oil is currently trading at less than $70 a barrel and the signed agreement mandates the creation of a work group to work out the price and other details of the transaction.
The Venezuelan foreign minister expressed his conviction that this financial formula of “sharing their potential,” will bear fruit and allows Spanish companies to participate in infrastructure programs in Venezuela and South America.
This agreement shows a warming of relations between Spain and Venezuela after a period of icy relations over a spat between Chavez and Spain’s King Juan Carlos at the Ibero-American Summit in November 2007, went after repeated rude interruptions the King famously told Chavez “shut up”.
Regards
Andrew Belles
