Give me liberty ...

Venezuela may be critical of the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) but not so critical of trade itself. The country does not want to isolate itself from the hemisphere's trading partners, and it encourages the development of regional trading blocs. The Chavez administration is keen on selling more oil to the United States, too, despite its wariness of the U.S.-backed FTAA. Venezuelan Production and Trade Minister Wilmar Castro Soteldo talks with LATIN TRADE Correspondent Benedicte Constans about regional trade blocs, oil, and swimming with sardines.

What do you think of relations between Brazil and the United States?

Brazil took a new approach to create greater areas of agreement between the countries. Despite this more flexible FTAA, there are still some sticking points concerning negotiations and suppression of export subsidies. However, flexibility can lead to consensus. Brazil and the United States are important leaders in the region, yet the U.S. must allow Brazil to lead in South America. With respect to the Caribbean, Venezuela's position is strongest when it comes to negotiations with smaller economies and less-developed countries.

What products would Venezuela want to defend?

Agriculture is something we would want to discuss. In terms of pharmaceuticals, commercial issues and access to science and medicine, there are problems that have not been properly addressed.

Only Cuba has criticized the FTAA with such vigor. How do you defend your country's views on trade?

If we take into account the path that the negotiations have taken, we can see the FTAA is no longer in its original form. It has generated much discontent between some of the countries that participated in the summit; however, many have given in to the larger powers in order to maintain a harmonious negotiating climate. We believe there are ways that the people can trade among themselves, and for that, we created the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) two years ago. Thanks to our criticism, the FTAA is "albanizing," taking on our proposals to give trade a human face.

What is Venezuela's position towards subregional deals in the Americas?

Regionalization becomes even more of a reality with each day, and all the countries are working, including the big powers, to protect or at least slow the destruction of their productive capacity. Not being a large power, with only so much productive infrastructure, and that concentrated on the petroleum industry, Venezuela believes in the integration process, in the search for market partners, and above all else, in the thawing of relations with Mercosur [Southern Common Market].

Venezuela is an oil exporter and the United States is dependent on oil. Will that determine under what terms the FTAA is signed?

Not participating in the FTAA does not mean sudden death for a country. There are more than 14,000 Venezuelan service stations in the United States. In addition, strategic development at the level of agricultural production aims to strengthen food reserves that guarantee domestic supply. We are doing the same with the automobile sector, to increase exports and investments. All this makes it difficult for Venezuela to remain alone in the continent, where trade continues to grow, and much less so thanks to the power that comes with being the largest supplier of oil in the Americas. We are planning to strengthen ties with the United States, boosting crude oil sales from its historic 14% to 24% of U.S. consumption.

How do you see Venezuela's economy in the coming decade?

Despite the crisis that has existed since 1999,Venezuela was one of the few countries on the continent that has had positive economic growth, at 3%. No country that lacks productive and industrial strength is capable of surviving, according to the FTAA, even with its added flexibility. The only ones that are favored are the large powers that are already stable. It is difficult for sardines to compete with sharks, especially when there are three sharks and 32 sardines swimming around.

David Rothkopf, former U.S. Commerce Department official in the Clinton