NationStates Jolt Archive

Ramisslian Ambassador Bob Bruninsik walked up to the WTO Chairman spot, and sat down. "I, as chairman of this organization, declare a hearing on the question of strategic economic placement and the use of embargos, tolls, and blockades." He asked his assistent to turn on a projecter.
An image showed up on a screen.
http://www.gibnet.com/fish/waters.gif
"This, as you know, is an image of the Gibraltar Strait and the territorial claims of it. As you can see, Spain has complete possesion of the strait. Therefor, if any vessal other than Spain's went through the strait, it would be tresspassing in Spanish Waters, and could be charged a fee. However, over fifteen countries withen Europe do not have contact to the Atlantic Ocean, save the Suez Canal. If a ship went through the Suez, instead of the strait, to Portugal it would have to go an extra 4,500 miles. That is quite a waste of resources to take that trip. Not to mention that the ship would have to go through oceans instead of a calm sea. This most definatly presents a problem. And it is not the only place. If the Strait of Hormez was ever blocked, Iraq, Quatar, Kuwait, and the UAE would have no contact to the open water. Now, are there any questions you have, or comments on how to fix this?"

OOC: havnt been here in a while, hey all

IC: oornacht beleives that it is Spanish waters and that they may choose to put a toll on it if they so choose. We have an option however. The nations can make a mass boycott for long enough untill Spain lowers the tariff to pass through its waters.

A rather simple solution would be to declare ALL waters within the Gibralter Strait, international waters. To appease Spain, all nations involved could pay a combined total of 100 billion dollars to the Spainish Government.

Otto von Hinderriech
Minister of Foriegn Affiars
San Lucia

Considering, both Iraq and Kuwait are colonies of Iraq the risk of losing contact with open water areas would prove immensely devastating.

Bureaucrat of the Drum God Empire

OOC:
Koornacht, that thing about tarrifs was hypothetical. And I didn't understand the rest of your post.

IC:
The ambassador again began to speak. "San Lucia, the solution is not so simple. First, all nations who own Spanish land would have to agree. Then all who owend Gibraltar would have to agree. Then Morrocco would have to agree. Not so simple. One way to take care of this mess would be to make specific territorial waters agreements, for each place in question. Another would be to declare fees from passing through waters illeagal according to International Law, at least waters which are not artificially made, such as canals. Any more comments on the situation?"

The Chairman spoke again. "Yet another solution could be to take all economically strategic locations and allow the an international association to have power over it. More suggestions are welcome."

OOC: This is my favourite suggestion. So many RP's could come from it, from fighting terrorists to ousting a corrupt board member. Seriously though, it is up to the WTO on the decision. And then the WTO and supporters have the responsibility to go through with whatever happens.

Delegate Henriech von Julius rose from his seat and after clearing his throat, began to speak to the imaptient, disgruntled crowd.

" My fellow delegates. I believe that the creation of International Free Trade Zones under the supervision of the WTO could be established. These Trade Zones would control and manage all major trade routes around the world."

"Each country that is located adjacent to these major waterways could send one delegate to the WTO and form some sort of Council of Trade. These delegates would, of course, deliberate on various propositions and then vote on them."

"The proposals would be sent to the larger branches of the WTO for evaluation and modification. Then the initiative would be enacted."

Julius folded his papers and gingerly placed them back into his vest pocket, while promptly returning to his seat.

Tanthan's General stood up, being the delegate from Tanthan; he said,

"Let's either make them stop the taxation of clearly a vital area for economic concerns of many countries, their idea is like taxing people on the air they breath! If they refuse we shall start a massive bombing run on Spain and simply take the land from them by force. Open it to international waters or make it a free area to cross, this would save lots of time, resources, fuel and possibly lives from those dangerous seas that have have claimed many lives before. Spain has always been a pushover and taxing ships is just another attempt to boost their own failing economy because they will not lower export taxes and increase import taxes and low work ethics, taxing ships is just a way to come up with more money to avoid facing political issues and keeping things as they are. There is no reason other nations should pay to keep this nation alive if it must use taxing hundreds of thousands of ships just to line their pockets and coffers! If we choose to go to war Tanthan will have the it open to all nations free of taxation within three days! For too long our brothers and sisters in our nations have had to pay to cross a vital area into the Mediterrean Sea, either the Straight of Gibraltar is free from taxation or it will be war! Against such a large group of nations Spain will have no other choice, but to meet our demands, chances are other nations like Brazil and Mauritania or even the nieghboring country of Portugal are fed up with the taxes for simply crossing into a new body of water to not even sell their goods!"

i think it should be split down the middle so evreyones happy and trade can still go on without embargos or warfare.

Tanthan's General stood up, being the delegate from Tanthan; he said,

"Let's either make them stop the taxation of clearly a vital area for economic concerns of many countries, their idea is like taxing people on the air they breath! If they refuse we shall start a massive bombing run on Spain and simply take the land from them by force. Open it to international waters or make it a free area to cross, this would save lots of time, resources, fuel and possibly lives from those dangerous seas that have have claimed many lives before. Spain has always been a pushover and taxing ships is just another attempt to boost their own failing economy because they will not lower export taxes and increase import taxes and low work ethics, taxing ships is just a way to come up with more money to avoid facing political issues and keeping things as they are. There is no reason other nations should pay to keep this nation alive if it must use taxing hundreds of thousands of ships just to line their pockets and coffers! If we choose to go to war Tanthan will have the it open to all nations free of taxation within three days! For too long our brothers and sisters in our nations have had to pay to cross a vital area into the Mediterrean Sea, either the Straight of Gibraltar is free from taxation or it will be war! Against such a large group of nations Spain will have no other choice, but to meet our demands, chances are other nations like Brazil and Mauritania or even the nieghboring country of Portugal are fed up with the taxes for simply crossing into a new body of water to not even sell their goods!"

OOC: Again, that was a COMPLETLY hypothetical thing. I never said Spain actually did tax ships. Chellis did block the strait, but then reopened it.
And also, Vizion controls Spain. That may not be a smart idea to bomb it.

IC: The chairman spoke. "Draganovia, your idea is not a new one, and certainly not a bad one. But, some control must be retained. So, if an organization which was open to all, not neccessarily the WTO, controlled key spots, then Spain could maintain the ability to vote on what happens. More questions, comments are welcome."

Again, the ambassador spoke. "Yet another plan could be to have an international conference, have nations sign a document that states they will uphold a law stating certain straits shall become International Waters, and let the other nations that have not signed it 'figure it out'. Any other comments, questions? This meeting must get under way."

bump

OOC:

Bump... Interesting.

IC:
Kyanges's Delegate, Kathryn Mirell spoke up:

"I know that this is a hypothetical situation, and so we have the luxury of having many options. But the one I feel would be most beneficial would be the suggestion of attempting to find a diplomatic solution to a small crisis such as this. However, I do feel that nothing should be left to chance. I propose that we begin talks with Spain right away in order to ensure such an event never happens in the first place.

I also propose that we initiate some sort of program of war games to test our military readiness to react to situations that require our military intervention. Such a training program would be a joint effort between all WTO nations, and would allow us to root out any deficiancys that might not have been covered in the current tactical and strategic placement of our forces. The first training senario could be this hypothetical situation of a powerful nation unwilling to lift its unfair fee on a certain water way, in this case, Spain."

After speaking, the delegate from Kyanges opened the floor again, and sat down.

The Chairman began to speak. "Yet another fine idea. Thanks to the feedback of many nations, I propose that WTO delegates brainstorm ideas, starting next Friday, and then we vote on the ideas. I open the floor to all for any idea."

The Chairman stood up. "Please, comments are more then welcome, they are required so that the WTO can make an informed decision. Remember, whatever happens here affects the entire international community."

"Our first idea is to declare the Strait of Gibraltar International Waters. This could be from either a treaty signed by many, or militiary involvment.

Our second idea is to have Free Trade zones in each area of particular need. A concil would decide on rulings, laws, and general happenings of these areas.
An idea that would tie into this would be to create an enforcement group; soldiers who would protect the zones from possible attacks.

We will have our first vote, on either of these two ideas, on Monday, December 13th. The Incorperation of Ramissle would like to let it be known of its particular liking of the second plan." The chairman sat down.