Cubans to sign $8 million light industry agreement with Venezuela

Venezuelan business persons are expected to sign an agreement with Cuba that surpasses $8 million. Light Industry & Trade Ministry says the contracts the Cubans will sign are for chocolate drinks, fruit juices, condensed milk, plastic bags and iron-tubed furniture, among other products. The $8 million will be added to $28 million agreed to in bilateral trade talks that took place in Havana last week. The Cubans will pay $1.9 million for the chocolates drinks deal and 1.4 for fruit justices, while $5 million will go for kitchen utensils, plastics and artisan products pending a positive green light from Cuban trade officials regarding which Venezuelan products to grants contracts to. During last week's trade talks, President Hugo Chavez Frias signed 10 trade agreements of cooperation and opened a Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and Venezuelan Investment Bank (BIV) branches. Perhaps the most significant agreement last week in Cuba was to officially launch President Chavez Frias' continental alternative to the USA's Free Trade for the Americas Agreement (FTAA), namely, The Bolivarian Alterative Trade Agreement (ALBA). Analysts suggest that Venezuelan trade agreements with Cuba have broken the USA economic blockade opening Cuba to trade with the rest of South American countries seeking a common market. A goal for Chavez Frias.

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