NationStates Jolt Archive

This Thread is for the Purpose of Trade Negotiations between the

DEMOCRATIC STATES OF GARMIDIA

and the

REPUBLIC OF ZINAIRE
============================================================
Garmidian Embassy, Zinaire

Ron Glist, the newly appointed and Head Ambassador to Zinaire from Garmidia, did up the buttons on his suit. Him and his team of negotiators, which included some of the top political figures in Garmidia, were getting ready to begin negotiations for a Trade treaty between Garmidia and Zinaire. He stood in front of the mirror.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Trade, John Tundra, was looking through his briefcase. He was looking at several things: Subsidization, a list of questions and things to be negotiated at the table with the Zinarian officials.

"Are we ready, yet?" The Secretary of the Commerce Commission of Garmidia, Gerald Reth asked as he strode down the hallway. All three of them looked like boring diplomats, in the same colored suits.

Ron Glist had only been in Zinaire for a few days, and already he was facing one of the biggest diplomatic meetings in his life.

Zinairian Foreign Authority

Perhaps it was a sign that they weren't much concerned with the smaller nation that the Commercial Authority had sent one of their most junior international trade advisors to the meeting. However unimportant his superiors thought they were, Daniel Mercer already thought the Garmidian delegation were the most intimidating people in the world, and he hadn't even met them yet. Daniel was a young man, only a few years out of university, and he entered the imposing Foreign Authority building with the meek air of an intern. He flashed his Commercial Authority credentials at a guard and was ushered through the metal detector and into the lofty, granite lobby of the building. He approached a receptionist and fumbled with his leather folio embossed with the CA's logo.

"Uh, hi," he said, failing to make eye contact with the attractive woman at the desk, "Daniel Mercer for uh, Grace Shepherd."

In typical Zinairian fashion, the woman did not offer even a polite smile as she entered the information into the computer.

"You're all signed in, Mr. Mercer. You'll be meeting on the third floor, Meeting Room C."

"Thanks," Daniel said, anxiously running his hand through his short brown hair before walking across the lobby floor, emblazoned with the FA logo, to the elevators.

He rode the meticulously shined metal box to the third floor. He stepped off into a hallway which, while very nice and a good step or two above anything at the Commercial Authority, was significantly less grand than the lobby. The glass doors that lined the hall looked newly installed and Daniel suspected this was due to the government's habit of remodeling just about everything every few years. This was a practice that chagrined both shaken-down tax-payers and disturbed bureaucrats. Meeting Room C was marked with a small metal plaque beside the door and through the glass, Daniel could see Grace sitting at a moderately-sized conference table.

As Daniel entered the room, Grace turned towards him. At first glance, it became clear that she was everything Daniel was not. She appeared to be in her late thirties and, while she had not weathered the diplomatic storms that the likes of Councilor Claudia Lavigne had faced, she clearly had a decade or so of experience under the high waistband of her stylish grey interview suit. Mostly noticeably, Grace exuded confidence, something which Daniel certainly lacked. As he entered the room, she rose and gave his hand a firm shake. Her hands were soft and somewhat boney and she smelled faintly of rose water. Were Daniel that sort to go for older women, he would have been enchanted.

"We're just waiting on the Garmidians," she said, sitting back down.

Daniel took a seat and nodded, swallowing nervously and noticeably as he did so.

Zinarian Foreign Authority

The Armored Mercedes Benz approached the front doors of the Zinarian Foreign Authority building. It was a large, tall building with the letters "ZFA" in giant block letters at the very top. The three delegates stepped out of their car. They were in a foreign land. A very, very foreign land.

The approached the receptionist, and she could immediately tell these people were not from Zinaire, so she just asked,
"Garmidia?"
The three diplomats nodded.
"Third Floor, Meeting Room C."
"Uh, thanks." Ron replied.

The woman didn't usher a smile and returned to her computer work.

The Garmidians entered the elevator, and pressed 3.

The elevator slowly hummed as it made it's short trip.

The Three Garmidian diplomats didn't know each other very well at all, even if they had had short meetings with each other. Clearly Ron was regarded head of the pack by the other two diplomats, though.

The elevator stopped, dinged, and the doors slid open. The walked around a little before reaching Meeting Room C. They entered to find a man and a woman sitting at a large, round table.

"Hi." Ron abruptly said.

OOC: I'll be off for dinner for a while, but will be back on.

OOC: Just for the record, it's generally not considered good form to RP other nations' people or establish things out of your control. This isn't so much an issue wit RPs like this, but it's a good thing to keep in mind.

Nicole and Daniel stood up almost in unison to greet the guests. They both offered their hand to shake and Nicole attempted a welcoming smile, but it came off as forced like these sort of polite smiles almost always do when executed by Zinairians.

"Nicole Shepherd, Senior Trade Advisor, Zinairian Foreign Authority," she said in a clipped and matter-of-face tone.

"Uh, and I'm Daniel Mercer, International Trade Advisor, Zinairian Commercial Authority," he said with none of the confidence of clarity that Nicole possessed.

OOC: True, true.

"I'm Ron Glist, Garmidian Head Ambassador to Zinaire and this is..." But he was cut off.

"I'm John Tundra, Garmidian Minster of Trade."

"And I'm Gerald Reth, Secretary of the Commerce Commission of Garmidia."

The three of them took seats at the round conference table.

"Shall we begin?" Ron asked.

John took out his briefcase and opened it, giving each member of the Garmidian team a booklet.

Nicole and Daniel took their seats across from the Garmidians. Daniel flipped open his folio and removed the expensive pen from its sleeve. Nicole one-upped him by removing her flashy new FA-issued tablet computer from its case resting by her chair. As the computer started up, Nicole cast a somewhat scornful glance at Daniel's primitive writing instruments.

"So, how can we help you gentlemen?" Nicole asked, tapping on her computer with the stylus.

Ron coughed.

"Well, obviously we have come here to negotiate the establishing of Trade between our two nations. The Trade Department basically has the conditions."

Everyone looked at John.

John stared blankly at everyone.

"Oh, oh right. Well, um, could I get a coffee?"

The other two Garmidian delegates looked at him with anger.

"Heh, Just... just kidding. But no, seriously, the Trade Department of Garmidia obviously, as Ron said, wishes to establish Trade relations with your nations. We will need to negotiate your current Tariffs and your strongest industries."

John hopefully thought he had redeemed himself.

Bump

Daniel started to get up and stopped awkwardly when everyone stared at him.

"Uh...did you actually want that coffee?"

Nicole gave him a stern look and he slid back into his seat.

"Trade in Zinaire is largely unregulated by the government," Nicole explained. "Just about any nation that requests a free trade agreement will receive one, unless there are additional political or economic issues."

John felt like an idiot. He had confused the Zinarian officials.

"The only issue," Ron explained, "Is that due to a recent heist of drugs from a foreign nation trying to sneak them into Garmidia, nearly all trade ships are being checked by our Coast Guard and Customs, and will be checked over the next 4 months. Is this an issue for trade from Zinaire?"

"And also, because Garmidia has become involved in a war, (http://wikistates.outwardhosting.com/wiki/War_in_Anacreon) we are suspicious of some ships."

"That's your prerogative," Nicole said, scribbling on her tablet as she spoke, "we have no problem with it. As long as searches are conducted in a professional manner, we don't see any reason to have a problem with you protecting your own borders."

Ron wrote a sentence on his notepad.

"What are Zinaire's strongest industries?" Asked Gerald.

"We have a large manufacturing sector which is dominated by automobile-maker ZMW. We also have a large electronics and computer technology industry. Tourism is an economic pillar on the outlying islands and we produce a wide variety of raw materials and resources on the mainland."

"Good, good." Said Gerald. "Garmidia is definitely in want of trading with ZMW automobiles, as foreign supplies and domestic supplies have been running out."
He wrote something down.

Nicole turned to Daniel, "I don't suppose you have their export catalogue on you?"

Daniel shook his head and Nicole sighed. She tapped furiously on her tablet for a few seconds before looking up.

"I'll have all their international material sent to the embassy. Now, why don't you tell me a little more about industry in Garmidia?"

"Garmidia's main industries are Logging, Uranium Mining, and Information Technology. We used to have a somewhat reliable Automobile Industry, but due to the lack of imports and sales from Garmides Benz, that isn't a major player anymore." John said. "And we have oil to, being exported by the Reddington State Oil Company."

Nicole bobbed her head and resumed her furious tablet-tapping. "As you probably don't know, Zinaire is almost entirely reliant on nuclear power, but our domestic uranium deposits can't keep up with our needs. We would be interesting in discussing importing some uranium with the appropriate organization." Nicole turned to Daniel. "Do you have current import data on that?"

Daniel shook his head meekly and looked like he was about to cry. Nicole gave him a cold, unrelenting glare then pulled the numbers up on her tablet.

Ron resumed to writing things down.

"If you would be interested in a discussion with the Uranium suppliers, we could set you up for a meeting with the company, Polatiore Uranium, for some time in the future." Said John.

Ron received a phone call and embarrassingly excused himself from the room.
The room fell silent for a couple of minutes.

Ron came in.

"Uhh, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Garmidia just wishes to say that all foreign delegates from Zinaire and other countries have been evacuated from their embassies in Garmidia following the Garmidia DEFCON level being raised to 5, which is the War level, the highest alert there is, following an invasion of one of our allies, but also wishes us to continue negotiating for the time being." And he sat down.

Nicole gestured towards her tablet. "I just got the same news through FA channels. We wish you and your allies good luck and we thank you for keeping the safety of our diplomats in mind at such a trying time."

Nicole wasn't exactly brimming with sympathy, but, to put things in context, a popular Zinairian "get well" card reading "I wish you the best of luck in quickly regaining your health and/or full use of all limbs and extremities" isn't really intended to be all that funny.

"So, would you like me to set that meeting up with the Palatoire Uranium shareholders?" John asked.

bump