Ecuador for Greater OPEC
Geopolitical Role
Ecuador 's president
Rafael Correa gave
Sunday his support to
the proposal of his
Venezuelan peer Hugo
Chavez for strengthening
the geopolitical role of
the Organization of
Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OPEC) during
the third summit of the
bloc that ends today.
Correa said that "trying
to deny that vision is
to deny reality," he
affirmed and added "We
need a political vision
to take adequate public
policies, adequate
collective policies, in
order to manage
adequately a strategic
resource such as oil."
As for the idea of
considering a revision
of the currency used by
OPEC for its crude
transactions, he
approved analyzing that
issue.
"If we continue
operating in a weak
currency as the dollar,
which has recently
fallen sharply, we would
be transfering our
wealth to the countries
with more stable
currencies," he said.
As much as I consider
that just prices "has
been a debate for
centuries" in economical
science, he asserted
producers should have an
adequate compensation,
above all if the main
consumers are the rich
countries.
"What should be sought
is a compensation for
poor oil importing
countries so as not to
increase their poverty,"
assured the Ecuadorean
Executive.
Also, Correa advanced
that Ecuador will
present a proposal to
create a special tax on
consumer countries,
which will serve to
study the effects of oil
on the environment and
global warming "and
above all compensate the
poorest countries so
they can fight that
phenomenon." The summit
is attended by
delegations of the 13
member countries of OPEC
which represent about 40
percent of world oil
production.
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