China To Become Venezuela’s Top Trade Partner

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7 December 2011

President Chavez meets with President
Hu Jintao of China in 2008.
In a public statement on 6 December, President Hugo Chavez said China could surpass the US and become Venezuela’s top trade partner. Growing economic ties between Venezuela and China have strengthened their strategic alliance in the last few years, amounting to US20 billion in trade. China previously agreed to more than US32 billion in loans to the South American country, while the latter increased oil shipments to China in return.
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/americas/chavez-china-story.html
(Reliability: 9.0)

Comment: The loan agreements with China provides key support to Chavez as he looks to finance spending in social programs ahead of next year’s presidential elections. Meanwhile, relations between the US and Venezuela remain strained. The US Embassy in Caracas is without an ambassador since July 2010 and the US has revoked the visa of the Venezuelan ambassador. Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s Foreign Minister, said he sees no possibility of improving relations with he US.

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