Introduction
Last week’s column revealed that in 2015, even as Guyana approaches half a century of Independence, several classical features of its colonial economic structure remain intact by global standards. These are its smallness (or even micro); poverty (or even impoverished); highly (or excessively) open to external influences; and exceptionally dependent (to say the least) on export and import trade in primary commodities. This latter continues to hold firm, even though individual products would have changed in their absolute values and relative rankings over the years. Today and in coming columns I shall explore several aspects of Guyana’s commodity trade. I shall start with oil imports, paying substantial attention to the Venezuelan PetroCaribe Agreement. As we shall observe more fully later this agreement is related to Guyana’s oil imports and its exports of rice.
Special marketing arrangements
Before continuing, a word of caution; for decades, a distinguishing feature of Guyana’s external commodities trade has been that it has been largely undertaken in regulated/protected markets,