FAX: (202) 362-5225

consulate(s) general: Miami

Diplomatic representation from the US: the US does not have an embassy in Antigua and Barbuda (embassy closed 30 June 1994); the US Ambassador to Barbados is accredited to Antigua and Barbuda

Flag description: red, with an inverted isosceles triangle based on the top edge of the flag; the triangle contains three horizontal bands of black (top), light blue, and white, with a yellow rising sun in the black band

Antigua and Barbuda Economy

Economy - overview: Tourism continues to be the dominant activity in the economy accounting directly or indirectly for more than half of GDP. The budding offshore financial sector has been seriously hurt by financial sanctions imposed by the US and UK as a result of the loosening of its money-laundering controls. The government has made efforts to comply with international demands in order to get the sanctions lifted. Antigua and Barbuda was listed as a tax haven by the OECD in 2000. The dual island nation's agricultural production is mainly directed to the domestic market; the sector is constrained by the limited water supply and labor shortages that reflect the pull of higher wages in tourism and construction. Manufacturing comprises enclave-type assembly for export with major products being bedding, handicrafts, and electronic components. Prospects for economic growth in the medium term will continue to depend on income growth in the industrialized world, especially in the US, which accounts for about one-third of all tourist arrivals.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $533 million (1999 est.)

GDP - real growth rate: 4.6% (1999 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $8,200 (1999 est.)

GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 4%

industry: 12.5%

services: 83.5% (1996 est.)

Population below poverty line: NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: NA%

highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 1.6% (1999 est.)

Labor force: 30,000

Labor force - by occupation: commerce and services 82%, agriculture 11%, industry 7% (1983)

Unemployment rate: 7% (1999 est.)

Budget: revenues: $122.6 million

expenditures: $141.2 million, including capital expenditures of $17.3 million (1997 est.)

Industries: tourism, construction, light manufacturing (clothing, alcohol, household appliances)

Industrial production growth rate: 6% (1997 est.)

Electricity - production: 95 million kWh (1999)

Electricity - production by source: fossil fuel: 100%

hydro: 0%

nuclear: 0%

other: 0% (1999)

Electricity - consumption: 88.4 million kWh (1999)

Electricity - exports: 0 kWh (1999)

Electricity - imports: 0 kWh (1999)

Agriculture - products: cotton, fruits, vegetables, bananas, coconuts, cucumbers, mangoes, sugarcane; livestock

Exports: $38 million (1998)

Exports - commodities: petroleum products 48%, manufactures 23%, machinery and transport equipment 17%, food and live animals 4%, other 8%

Exports - partners: OECS 26%, Barbados 15%, Guyana 4%, Trinidad and
Tobago 2%, US 0.3%

Imports: $330 million (1998)

Imports - commodities: food and live animals, machinery and transport equipment, manufactures, chemicals, oil

Imports - partners: US 27%, UK 16%, Canada 4%, OECS 3%

Debt - external: $357 million (1998)

Economic aid - recipient: $2.3 million (1995)

Currency: East Caribbean dollar (XCD)

Currency code: XCD

Exchange rates: East Caribbean dollars per US dollar - 2.7000 (fixed rate since 1976)

Fiscal year: 1 April - 31 March

Antigua and Barbuda Communications

Telephones - main lines in use: 28,000 (1996)

Telephones - mobile cellular: 1,300 (1996)

Telephone system: general assessment: NA

domestic: good automatic telephone system

international: 1 coaxial submarine cable; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); tropospheric scatter to Saba (Netherlands Antilles) and Guadeloupe

Radio broadcast stations: AM 4, FM 2, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios: 36,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations: 2 (1997)

Televisions: 31,000 (1997)

Internet country code: .ag

Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 16 (2000)

Internet users: 8,000 (2000)

Antigua and Barbuda Transportation

Railways: total: 77 km

narrow gauge: 64 km 0.760-m gauge; 13 km 0.610-m gauge (used almost exclusively for handling sugarcane)

Highways: total: 1,165 km

paved: 384 km

unpaved: 781 km (1999 est.)

Waterways: none

Ports and harbors: Saint John's

Merchant marine: total: 681 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 4,070,390 GRT/5,289,904 DWT

ships by type: bulk 15, cargo 424, chemical tanker 10, combination bulk 4, container 176, liquefied gas 4, multi-functional large-load carrier 6, petroleum tanker 2, refrigerated cargo 11, roll on/roll off 29

note: includes some foreign-owned ships registered here as a flag of convenience: Cyprus 2, Germany 4, Slovenia 2 (2000 est.)

Airports: 3 (2000 est.)

Airports - with paved runways: total: 2

2,438 to 3,047 m: 1

under 914 m: 1 (2000 est.)

Airports - with unpaved runways: total: 1

under 914 m: 1 (2000 est.)

Antigua and Barbuda Military

Military branches: Royal Antigua and Barbuda Defense Force, Royal
Antigua and Barbuda Police Force (includes Coast Guard)

Military expenditures - dollar figure: $NA

Military expenditures - percent of GDP: NA%

Antigua and Barbuda Transnational Issues

Disputes - international: none

Illicit drugs: considered a minor transshipment point for narcotics bound for the US and Europe; more significant as a drug-money-laundering center

@Arctic Ocean

Arctic Ocean Introduction Top of Page

Background: The Arctic Ocean is the smallest of the world's five oceans (after the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, and the recently delimited Southern Ocean). The Northwest Passage (US and Canada) and Northern Sea Route (Norway and Russia) are two important seasonal waterways. A sparse network of air, ocean, river, and land routes circumscribes the Arctic Ocean.

Arctic Ocean Geography

Location: body of water between Europe, Asia, and North America, mostly north of the Arctic Circle

Geographic coordinates: 90 00 N, 0 00 E

Map references: Arctic Region

Area: total: 14.056 million sq km

note: includes Baffin Bay, Barents Sea, Beaufort Sea, Chukchi Sea, East Siberian Sea, Greenland Sea, Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, Northwest Passage, and other tributary water bodies

Area - comparative: slightly less than 1.5 times the size of the US

Coastline: 45,389 km

Climate: polar climate characterized by persistent cold and relatively narrow annual temperature ranges; winters characterized by continuous darkness, cold and stable weather conditions, and clear skies; summers characterized by continuous daylight, damp and foggy weather, and weak cyclones with rain or snow

Terrain: central surface covered by a perennial drifting polar icepack that averages about 3 meters in thickness, although pressure ridges may be three times that size; clockwise drift pattern in the Beaufort Gyral Stream, but nearly straight-line movement from the New Siberian Islands (Russia) to Denmark Strait (between Greenland and Iceland); the icepack is surrounded by open seas during the summer, but more than doubles in size during the winter and extends to the encircling landmasses; the ocean floor is about 50% continental shelf (highest percentage of any ocean) with the remainder a central basin interrupted by three submarine ridges (Alpha Cordillera, Nansen Cordillera, and Lomonosov Ridge)

Elevation extremes: lowest point: Fram Basin -4,665 m

highest point: sea level 0 m

Natural resources: sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic nodules, oil and gas fields, fish, marine mammals (seals and whales)

Natural hazards: ice islands occasionally break away from northern Ellesmere Island; icebergs calved from glaciers in western Greenland and extreme northeastern Canada; permafrost in islands; virtually ice locked from October to June; ships subject to superstructure icing from October to May

Environment - current issues: endangered marine species include walruses and whales; fragile ecosystem slow to change and slow to recover from disruptions or damage; thinning polar icepack

Geography - note: major chokepoint is the southern Chukchi Sea (northern access to the Pacific Ocean via the Bering Strait); strategic location between North America and Russia; shortest marine link between the extremes of eastern and western Russia; floating research stations operated by the US and Russia; maximum snow cover in March or April about 20 to 50 centimeters over the frozen ocean; snow cover lasts about 10 months

Arctic Ocean Economy

Economy - overview: Economic activity is limited to the exploitation of natural resources, including petroleum, natural gas, fish, and seals.

Arctic Ocean Transportation

Ports and harbors: Churchill (Canada), Murmansk (Russia), Prudhoe
Bay (US)

Transportation - note: sparse network of air, ocean, river, and land routes; the Northwest Passage (North America) and Northern Sea Route (Eurasia) are important seasonal waterways

Arctic Ocean Transnational Issues

Disputes - international: some maritime disputes (see littoral states)

@Argentina

Argentina Introduction

Background: Following independence from Spain in 1816, Argentina experienced periods of internal political conflict between conservatives and liberals and between civilian and military factions. After World War II, a long period of Peronist dictatorship was followed by a military junta that took power in 1976. Democracy returned in 1983, and numerous elections since then have underscored Argentina's progress in democratic consolidation.

Argentina Geography

Location: Southern South America, bordering the South Atlantic
Ocean, between Chile and Uruguay

Geographic coordinates: 34 00 S, 64 00 W

Map references: South America

Area: total: 2,766,890 sq km

land: 2,736,690 sq km

water: 30,200 sq km

Area - comparative: slightly less than three-tenths the size of the
US

Land boundaries: total: 9,665 km

border countries: Bolivia 832 km, Brazil 1,224 km, Chile 5,150 km, Paraguay 1,880 km, Uruguay 579 km

Coastline: 4,989 km

Maritime claims: contiguous zone: 24 NM

continental shelf: 200 NM or to the edge of the continental margin

exclusive economic zone: 200 NM

territorial sea: 12 NM

Climate: mostly temperate; arid in southeast; subantarctic in southwest

Terrain: rich plains of the Pampas in northern half, flat to rolling plateau of Patagonia in south, rugged Andes along western border

Elevation extremes: lowest point: Salinas Chicas -40 m (located on
Peninsula Valdes)

highest point: Cerro Aconcagua 6,960 m

Natural resources: fertile plains of the Pampas, lead, zinc, tin, copper, iron ore, manganese, petroleum, uranium

Land use: arable land: 9%

permanent crops: 1%

permanent pastures: 52%

forests and woodland: 19%

other: 19% (1993 est.)

Irrigated land: 17,000 sq km (1993 est.)

Natural hazards: San Miguel de Tucuman and Mendoza areas in the Andes subject to earthquakes; pamperos are violent windstorms that can strike the Pampas and northeast; heavy flooding

Environment - current issues: environmental problems (urban and rural) typical of an industrializing economy such as soil degradation, desertification, air pollution, and water pollution

note: Argentina is a world leader in setting voluntary greenhouse gas targets

Environment - international agreements: party to:
Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources,
Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change,
Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification,
Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban,
Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands, Whaling

signed, but not ratified: Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Marine Life Conservation

Geography - note: second-largest country in South America (after
Brazil); strategic location relative to sea lanes between South
Atlantic and South Pacific Oceans (Strait of Magellan, Beagle
Channel, Drake Passage)

Argentina People

Population: 37,384,816 (July 2001 est.)

Age structure: 0-14 years: 26.54% (male 5,077,593; female 4,842,811)

15-64 years: 63.04% (male 11,795,282; female 11,773,855)

65 years and over: 10.42% (male 1,609,672; female 2,285,603) (2001 est.)

Population growth rate: 1.15% (2001 est.)

Birth rate: 18.41 births/1,000 population (2001 est.)

Death rate: 7.58 deaths/1,000 population (2001 est.)

Net migration rate: 0.64 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2001 est.)

Sex ratio: at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female

under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female

15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female

65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/female

total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2001 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 17.75 deaths/1,000 live births (2001 est.)

Life expectancy at birth: total population: 75.26 years

male: 71.88 years

female: 78.82 years (2001 est.)

Total fertility rate: 2.44 children born/woman (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: 0.69% (1999 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: 130,000 (1999 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths: 1,800 (1999 est.)

Nationality: noun: Argentine(s)

adjective: Argentine

Ethnic groups: white (mostly Spanish and Italian) 97%, mestizo,
Amerindian, or other nonwhite groups 3%

Religions: nominally Roman Catholic 92% (less than 20% practicing),
Protestant 2%, Jewish 2%, other 4%

Languages: Spanish (official), English, Italian, German, French

Literacy: definition: age 15 and over can read and write

total population: 96.2%

male: 96.2%

female: 96.2% (1995 est.)

Argentina Government

Country name: conventional long form: Argentine Republic

conventional short form: Argentina

local long form: Republica Argentina

local short form: Argentina

Government type: republic

Capital: Buenos Aires

Administrative divisions: 23 provinces (provincias, singular - provincia), and 1 autonomous city* (distrito federal); Buenos Aires; Buenos Aires Capital Federal*; Catamarca; Chaco; Chubut; Cordoba; Corrientes; Entre Rios; Formosa; Jujuy; La Pampa; La Rioja; Mendoza; Misiones; Neuquen; Rio Negro; Salta; San Juan; San Luis; Santa Cruz; Santa Fe; Santiago del Estero; Tierra del Fuego, Antartica e Islas del Atlantico Sur; Tucuman

note: the US does not recognize any claims to Antarctica

Independence: 9 July 1816 (from Spain)

National holiday: Revolution Day, 25 May (1810)

Constitution: 1 May 1853; revised August 1994

Legal system: mixture of US and West European legal systems; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal and mandatory

Executive branch: chief of state: President Fernando DE LA RUA (since 10 December 1999); Vice President Carlos "Chacho" ALVAREZ resigned 6 October 2000 and a replacement has not yet been named; note - the president is both the chief of state and head of government

head of government: President Fernando DE LA RUA (since 10 December 1999); Vice President Carlos "Chacho" ALVAREZ resigned 6 October 2000 and a replacement has not yet been named; note - the president is both the chief of state and head of government

cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president

elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket by popular vote for four-year terms; election last held 24 October 1999 (next to be held NA October 2003)

election results: Fernando DE LA RUA elected president; percent of vote - 48.5%

Legislative branch: bicameral National Congress or Congreso Nacional consists of the Senate (72 seats; formerly, three members appointed by each of the provincial legislatures; presently transitioning to one-third of the members being elected every two years to six-year terms) and the Chamber of Deputies (257 seats; one-half of the members elected every two years to four-year terms)

elections: Senate - transition phase will begin in the 2001 elections when all seats will be fully contested; winners will randomly draw to determine whether they will serve a two-year, four-year, or full six-year term, beginning a rotating cycle renovating one-third of the body every two years; Chamber of Deputies - last held 24 October 1999 (next to be held NA October 2001)

election results: Senate - percent of vote by bloc or party - NA%; seats by bloc or party - Peronist 40, UCR 20, Frepaso 1, other 11; Chamber of Deputies - percent of vote by bloc or party - NA%; seats by bloc or party - Alliance 124 (UCR 85, Frepaso 36, others 3), Peronist 101, AR 12, other 20

Judicial branch: Supreme Court or Corte Suprema (the nine Supreme
Court judges are appointed by the president with approval by the
Senate)

Political parties and leaders: Action for the Republic or AR [Domingo CAVALLO]; Front for a Country in Solidarity or Frepaso (a four-party coalition) [Carlos ALVAREZ]; Justicialist Party or PJ [Carlos Saul MENEM] (Peronist umbrella political organization); Radical Civic Union or UCR [Raul ALFONSIN]; several provincial parties

Political pressure groups and leaders: Argentine Association of Pharmaceutical Labs (CILFA); Argentine Industrial Union (manufacturers' association); Argentine Rural Society (large landowners' association); business organizations; General Confederation of Labor or CGT (Peronist-leaning umbrella labor organization); Peronist-dominated labor movement; Roman Catholic Church; students

International organization participation: AfDB, Australia Group,
BCIE, BIS, CCC, ECLAC, FAO, G-6, G-11, G-15, G-19, G-24, G-77, IADB,
IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO,
IMF, IMO, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, LAES,
LAIA, Mercosur, MINURSO, MIPONUH, MTCR, NSG, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA,
RG, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNFICYP, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIKOM, UNMEE,
UNMIBH, UNMIK, UNMOP, UNTSO, UNU, UPU, WCL, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
WToO, WTrO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US: chief of mission: Ambassador
Guillermo Enrique GONZALEZ

chancery: 1600 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009

telephone: (202) 238-6400