Venezuela is now pushing against the sanctions of the United States which are before the World Trade Organization. These sanctions are inclusive of the ones which are imposed against the crypto-currency efforts that were controversial.
The complaint has been filed by the Venezuela last month which was published this week. The complaint addresses to a lot of actions which have been undertaken by the United States in the past few years.
The complaint of Venezuela also claims that the United States is contravening in the rights of the country which are under the GATT that is an abbreviation of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade which was signed in 1994 along with GATS which is the abbreviation of the General Agreement on Trade in Services.
The complaint also observes the restrictions that have been imposed on the transactions of the digital currency of Venezuela.
The Venezuelan complaint stated that there has been imposition of measures that are restricting the trade and are coercive in nature.
The imposition is on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and is a part of the attempt so as to isolate Venezuela when considered from economic point of view.
The Petro-Venezuelan digital currency
At the end of 2017, Venezuela had made an announcement that the country was developing Petro which is a crypto-currency. Venezuela launched Petro in 2018.
Since the launch of Petro, Nicolas Maduro has ordered the use of it into many varied industries.
But this is not the happy ending, the crypto-currency of Venezuela has also witnessed several pushback. Most of them were from the lawmakers of the United States.
The president of the United States, Donald Trump had even signed in last March an executive order which was so as to target this crypto-currency of Venezuela.
The lawmakers of the United States have condemned the Petro.
The complaint of Venezuela
The complaint of Venezuela states that the sanctions imposed by the United States are nothing but trade restrictive measures which are discriminatory and coercive.
The complaint also explains that the measures of the United States mean that the financial services along with the suppliers of the financial service get treatment that are not favorable.
Because of the above stated reason, the measures undertaken by the United States violate Article II:1 of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. The article of GATT according to Venezuela states that there cannot be less favourable treatment of one nation by any other nation.
As per the report of Reuters, the United States has about 60 days for responding to the complaint of Venezuela, failing to which the decision on the merits of the complaint can be decided by WTO as per the request of Venezuela.
Source: CoinDesk, Reuters
