If a bunch of food staple producers got together and decided to artificially limit output that results to shortage, that would raise prices. They’d effectively profit more with less. It’s also illegal, so how does OPEC constituents do it?
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Which laws?
US laws like the Sherman Act? The US courts don’t have jurisdiction there.
EU laws? Same issue.
International treaties? There’s no treaty saying you can’t, OPEC would never agree to one, and they’d bust out another embargo if the US tried forcing them to agree to one.
We could try and break up OPEC through use of sanctions and boycotts, but as we have seen with Russia, it’s very hard to suddenly stop dealing with a major supply of oil.
Oil consumers have no mechanism to break up OPEC or inhibit it.
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