Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
against the compliance and austerity demands of traditional interna-
tional lenders. Such practices may also weaken already inferior environ-
mental and social criteria, induce a global race to the bottom for lenders,
and increase hardship on impacted ecosystems, communities, and
workers. For instance, China's lending practices may have infl uenced the
World Bank's 2005 pilot program to offer loans if a nation complies with
its own environmental and social assessments and safeguards, rather
than the (albeit weak) World Bank ones (Guttal 2008).
Curbed by Latin American and Northern Models
In contrast to its African and Asian operations, China's oil companies
appear to be upholding standards within the oil industry in Latin
America, where China's needs and competitiveness in science and tech-
nology complement the region's political strength, grassroots activism,
union activities, and copresence of Northern companies. Indeed, Chinese
oil companies appear to be shoring up access and goodwill in Latin
America, while shoring up access in parts of Africa and Asia.
In Latin America, the region's semiperipheral, or middle-income,
nations, including Venezuela, Brazil, and Mexico, have demonstrated
their strength in balancing China's operations, which is primarily in oil
and mineral operations, with their own domestic needs. Likewise, Latin
America's peripheral, or low-income, nations are opening their doors to
China, while presenting these shifts as more equal-sharing and benefi cial
than former agreements with Northern MNCs or governments.
For example, Bolivia, Venezuela, and Ecuador renegotiated oil terms
with China's oil companies to better benefi t the state, while Ecuador also
encouraged China to invest in an oil refi nery on the Pacifi c coast and an
airport in the Amazon (Spencer et al. 2007; Alvaro 2007).
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In July 2009,
China signed a US$1 billion “loan-for-oil deal” with Ecuador whereby
Ecuador agreed to a two-year commitment to export approximately
three million barrels of oil per month to China (“Ecuador Set to Receive
$1 Billion Loan” 2009). In addition, China and Venezuela are negotiat-
ing a Pacifi c-bound oil pipeline, via Colombia (Hutton 2006), as well as
building oil refi neries together in China (“Venezuela to Sign Deal” 2007).
Likewise, Brazil signed an agreement in 2009 to supply oil for Chinese
refi neries in exchange for a US$10 billion loan for Brazil to develop its
own offshore oil fi elds (“Brazil Agrees to Supply Crude Oil to China”
2009).
Trade relations with China also vary from a free trade agreement with
Chile to trade restrictions adopted by Argentina, from trade surpluses
