Madrid, March 26 (Europe Press) –
The World Trade Organization (WTO) on Friday suspended the meeting of the dispute settlement body after the United States rejected Venezuela’s request to open an investigation into the former administration’s sanctions. President Donald Trump versus President Nicolas Maduro.
The United States clarified that during the meeting, it exercised its rights as a member of the organization to oppose this request of the “illegal” committee, because it considers that “the representatives of the regime of Maduro do not speak for the Venezuelan people.
In this sense, the North American country insisted that it “will reject any attempt by Maduro to abuse the World Trade Organization to attack American sanctions which aim to restore human rights and democracy in Venezuela â€.
In this way, the meeting ended soon after Venezuela rejected a subsequent request by Washington asking the WTO to remove Venezuela’s request regarding the dispute from the meeting’s agenda, according to an official who had access to Bloomberg.
The mutual blockade between Venezuela and the United States means that the trade organization will not be able to hold regular meetings to settle disputes unless one of the two countries back down.
Between 2018 and 2019, Donald Trump’s government created a series of regulations and executive orders to prevent Venezuela from accessing U.S. financial markets. The measures affected any transaction related to the purchase of Venezuelan debt.
As far as Venezuela is concerned, these measures were taken to “isolate the country economically”, as stated in its complaint filed today, and it is understood that it violated its rights in the General Agreement on Tariffs. and trade and in the General Agreement on Trade. Services.
The Trump administration had previously opposed Venezuela’s request to open an investigation into the dispute at the World Trade Organization in 2019, which prevented members of the body from holding a dispute settlement meeting in WTO, which has not happened since 1999.