Venezuela/Cuba trade volumes up sharply

Venezuela/Cuba trade volumes up sharply    Trade between Venezuela and Cuba is expected to increase by 50 percent to reach $3.5 billion in 2006, according to a report in the Miami Herald.
   The paper talked to leading trade officials in both nations, who said Venezuela's oil exports to Cuba are now being supplemented non-oil products. Cuba is now Venezuela's number three trade partner, behind the U.S. and Colombia.
   Adan Chavez, the Venezuelan ambassador to Cuba and the old brother of    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, said in an Associated Press interview in Havana last week that Venezuela sold Cuba 90,000 barrels of crude oil in 2005 valued at $1.8 billion. He said total trade came to $2.5 billion.
   In addition to petroleum products, Venezuela is exporting construction materials and supplies and an increasing volume of general consumer products, which will account for much of the expected increase in 2006.
   Cuba's main export to Venezuela is medicines and medical equipment. Cuban exports to Venezuela reached $500 million in 2005, the report said.
   In addition to goods and services included in trade statistics, Cuba has some 22,000 doctors and health care workers in Venezuela, the report noted.