Trade Organization

Topic: Trade Trade routes and trade organizations have had an extensive impact on the worlds’ nations and regions. Many effects both negative and positive. Two trade organizations that have made a great impact are the organization of the petroleum exporting countries (OPEC) and the trans-Saharan trade routes of African kingdoms. The organization of petroleum exporting countries was established on September 10-14, 1960. It is an intergovernmental organization of 12 oil producing countries. The 12 countries are Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. These 12 countries depend heavily on oil revenues as their main source of income. The headquarters are located in Vienna. The OPEC was founded to unify and co-ordinate member countries in order to secure fair and stable prices for petroleum producers. The OPEC controls ? of the supply of oil in the world. The OPEC has both advantages and disadvantages. Some advantages are that it is more efficient to provide a regular supply of oil to consuming nations. They have better access to recourses to the producing countries. They have had a big influence on the international petroleum market by changing the petroleum policies according to the worlds demand and supply. Some disadvantages of the OPEC are that they can have too much control of the oil and the price because they are main oil producing countries throughout the world. They can hurt the members of the organization by limiting the oil supply.