Venezuela to Block Colombian Trade and Investment

At its core, the Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela crisis is more about politics than economics, but we may see a direct impact on trade and investment:

is starting to block billions of dollars in Colombian imports and investment under orders from

, threatening economic havoc in both nations in response to a Colombian military attack on rebels hiding in

.

Chavez and Ecuadorean

demanded international condemnation of

's U.S.-allied government on Wednesday night, while Chavez predicted a sharp fall in the $6 billion in annual Colombia-Venezuela trade: "That's coming down."

"We aren't interested in Colombian investments here," Chavez said, standing beside Correa. "Of the Colombian businesses that are here in Venezuela, we could nationalize some."

I don't know if there are any Colombia-Venezuela investment treaties that would cover the investment part, but clearly WTO rules have a lot to say about a trade ban.  It has been a while since we've seen a GATT Article XXI defense argued, but presumably that's what Venezuela would invoke here.