从明年起，拉美左翼集团成员国之间的贸易将用一种叫做“苏克雷”的新型虚拟货币进行结算。这种货币不会印刷成纸币也不会铸成硬币，可以用来处理各成员国之间的债务问题，同时还可减少对美元的依赖。据悉，古巴近日已经签署了一份用苏克雷购买一批委内瑞拉大米的协议，但具体价值不详。“美洲玻利瓦尔替代计划”贸易集团从13日起在古巴首都举行为期两天的首脑会议。该集团由委内瑞拉自称社会主义者总统的查韦斯一手建立，用以替代美国所支持的自由贸易协定。古巴总统卡斯特罗表示，各成员国之间的这种合作能够帮助减轻全球金融危机对各国的影响。
Members of Latin America’s Leftist bloc will trade amongst themselves using a new currency called the "sucre" in the new year, the group said over the weekend.
No sucres will be printed or coined, but the virtual currency will be used to manage debts between the nine nations in a move to reduce reliance on the US dollar.
Cuba already signed an agreement on Saturday to pay for a shipment of Venezuelan rice in sucres, according to Rogelio Sierra, the island’s deputy foreign minister. He declined to say what the shipment was worth.
That agreement was made as it emerged that cash-strapped Cuba has fallen behind on its debt to nations and multinational corporations amid the global recession.
The Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas trade group was holding a two-day summit over the weekend in the Cuban capital.
The group was formed by Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez as an alternative to US-backed free-trade consortia. Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Honduras, Ecuador, Bolivia, Antigua and Barbuda, San Vincent and the Grenadines, and Dominica.
Honduras remains part of the bloc despite a June coup that toppled Leftist President Manuel Zelaya. Mr Zelaya’s deposed foreign minister attended the summit, but the acting government in Honduras will almost certainly not abide by any agreements made.
Mr Chavez was greeted Friday as he arrived in Cuba by President Raul Castro. Cuba and Venezuela signed "agreements of cooperation" on 285 bilateral projects in 2010 totalling nearly US$3.2 billion, according to Rafael Ramirez, Venezuela’s energy minister. He provided no details on what those agreements entailed, however.
On Saturday, Mr Castro said the cooperation between the countries will allow them to "alleviate the negative impact of the current world economic crisis."
责任编辑：sealion1986
