Using the XL pipeline to punish Venuzuela over Snowden?
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That sentiment was echoed across the aisle and in the upper chamber by Robert Menendez (D., NJ), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“I think you have to look, whether you look at trade preferences, other elements of our policy, our aid, our trade,” he said. Any acceptance of Mr. Snowden by any country “is going to put them directly against the U.S., and they need to know that,” he added.
The U.S. has a strong trade relationship with Venezuela, second only to Mexico among Latin American countries in exports to the U.S., mostly oil. Approving the long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline would be one way to retaliate economically and undermine Venezuelan oil exports, since the pipeline would displace some Venezuelan crude from Gulf Coast refineries.
Foreign aid to Latin America has already fallen thanks to the sequester and Congress will have to take up the administration’s request for fiscal year 2014, giving lawmakers a chance to match the bark with some bite.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/07/07/lawmakers-say-u-s-being-taunted-over-snowden/?mod=WSJ_hppMIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsSecond
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