Floundering world tin body to undergo restructuring
Floundering world tin body to undergo restructuring
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): The Association of Tin Producing Countries (ATPC), which is soon to lose Australia and Thailand as members, is to be restructured next year to remain relevant, a report said yesterday.
ATPC's new chairman, Muhammad Kaloma Ali of Nigeria said in remarks published here Thursday that the restructuring proposal was expected to be presented to ATPC ministers for approval in May next year.
It would coincide with the time the ATPC was to decide on whether it should reintroduce its 1987 export-quota mechanism which was disbanded last June 30 after several ATPC members were found to have flouted the quotas.
"A draft proposal should be completed by late February, perhaps between Feb. 24 and 27," Muhammad Kaloma, who arrived here Wednesday for a two-day visit, was reported saying by Business Times English-language daily.
Apart from Australia and Thailand which will cease to be members of ATPC from December 10 and December 30 respectively, the producer-cartel groups Bolivia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria and Zaire. Brazil has observer status.
Muhammad Kaloma said the group had at a two-day meeting in Singapore earlier this week decided to put off a decision to reintroduce the supply rationalization scheme (SRS) to May.
The 13-year old ATPC had implemented the SRS to help deplete surplus tin and improve prices.
When asked if the departure of the two members would weaken the group's agenda towards supply rationalization, Muhammad Kaloma said other countries had expressed keen interest in joining ATPC, namely Peru, Brazil, Vietnam, Zimbabwe and Portugal.
Muhammad Kaloma said he has not received official acknowledgement from Zaire to leave the association, although the country had stopped producing tin and had not been attending ATPC meetings.
He said a Malaysian official has been appointed as ATPC acting executive secretary for a year following the resignation of Thailand's Jumrud Atikul. He did not name the official.