BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - THOUGH Venezuela is pushing for a regional currency through its Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) trade agreement, Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Denzil Douglas has stated that the Federation would not be adopting it.
Speaking at the Sixth PetroCaribe Summit, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said that the recently enacted virtual currency of ALBA, the SUCRE, would help members of PetroCaribe escape “the tyranny of the [US] dollar”.
While St. Kitts-Nevis is not currently a member of the ALBA agreement, the nation has been invited to join due to its membership in PetroCaribe and a US$50M loan was made available to the Federation last week through an ALBA financed institution.
“We are not a member of ALBA at the moment, but our loan that I just mentioned is in fact a loan that came from the ALBA Bank. It was the managing director of the ALBA Bank who signed the loan with our Minister of Finance.
“We are already accessing ALBA funds even though we are not a member of ALBA,” Douglas revealed at his monthly press conference yesterday (June 17).
The SUCRE currency would potentially pose a problem for Eastern Caribbean countries, such as Dominica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, signed onto ALBA, as they all currently use the East Caribbean dollar as their national currency.
The Prime Minister said that even though St. Kitts-Nevis signing onto ALBA is currently being taken under consideration, there are no current plans to adopt the SUCRE currency.
“I don’t think that St. Kitts-Nevis has any reason to leave the currency arrangement we have with the Eastern Caribbean states. It is not something to contemplate at all,” he stated.
Despite stating the Federation would not be taking up the currency in the foreseeable future, Douglas had high praise for the “vision” of President Chavez.
“It sounds far-fetched, but it tells you to a large extent how visionary President Chavez is and how visionary the architects of the PetroCaribe agreement are. You may think that he is dreaming, but it is something that I believe as a concept that can be developed,” Douglas said.
He added that if the SUCRE were ever to be enacted in the Eastern Caribbean, fair currency conversion would be the first item that would need to be discussed.
