LATIN AMERICAN TRADE BLOC TURNS BACK ON DOLLAR

Panorama.am
15:47 19/10/2009

The Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), an association
of the Latin American trade bloc, agreed to stop using U.S. dollars
for regional commerce from next year, AP reported Saturday.

The leaders of the nine ALBA members met in Cochabamba, Bolivia
on Friday and Saturday and agreed to introduce a new currency, the
Unified Regional Compensation System or SUCRE, early next year. SUCRE
is a virtual currency and there will be no bills issued in SUCRE. It
will be used for electronic payment, and each country can withdraw
the equivalent in its own currency.

ALBA countries hope to develop SUCRE into something like the euro,
and use it commercially in trade with countries outside the bloc. But
the nine leaders could not agree when they will start doing that.

SUCRE is the name of the Ecuadorian currency used until 2000, when it
was replaced by the dollar. It is named after Venezuelan independence
leader Antonio Jose de Sucre (1795-1830).

ALBA was formed under the leadership of then-Cuban president Fidel
Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in December 2004. Members
are Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Honduras,
Nicaragua, Saint Vincent and Venezuela.

After the ALBA summit, Chavez told the press OPEC, Iran and Russia
had suggested the idea of not using the U.S. dollar when paying for
oil and that Venezuela welcomes the proposal, Reuters reported.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress