INRO accord in sight despite leadership row

INRO accord in sight despite leadership row

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): The International Natural Rubber Organization (INRO) ended talks yesterday "optimistic" a new pact could be in place in January, even though no solution was in sight to a Malaysia-Indonesia dispute over INRO's top post.

Malaysia and Indonesia are vying for INRO's executive- directorship, and Kuala Lumpur has threatened not to ratify the new third International Natural Rubber Agreement (INRA III) if it fails to win the post, now held by Thailand.

That dispute has put a spanner in the works of the ratification process, delegates said.

Failure to break that deadlock by year-end will result in the liquidation of the 17-year old Kuala Lumpur-based INRO, which groups six producing members and 21 consuming members.

But the INRO council, in a brief communique at the end of a two-day meeting, said that based on statements made by delegates, it was optimistic of an accord by Jan. 1.

Council chairman S. Anura Ekanayake of Sri Lanka urged all members to ratify the accord as soon as possible to enable the implementation of the four-year accord, hammered out in February following U.N.- sponsored talks in Geneva.

"The optimism stems from the fact that a number of countries have indicated that the process (of ratification) is in motion," INRO buffer stock manager James Hegarty said.

"The delegates were optimistic they would certainly be able to get the relevant documents to the United Nations by year-end," Hegarty told AFP, declining to comment on the Malaysia-Indonesia dispute.

Without the two key exporters, INRO will not garner sufficient exporter votes for it to be implemented in 1997, although key consumer nations have given their support.

Head of Malaysia's delegation to INRO, Ahmad Zubeir Noordin, said: "Talks are still going on between Malaysia and Indonesia to come an understanding (with regards to the INRO's top post)."

A decision by the European Union on Monday to "provisionally implement" the accord from Jan. 1 means that countries representing 77 percent of world rubber importers have agreed to ratify the agreement.

This has exceeded the 75 percent of votes which must be gathered from consumers for the new accord to come into force to replace INRA II, which expired in December last year.

But INRO's key exporting members have yet to give their required 75 percent backing.

So far, those who have ratified or have provisionally agreed to do so are Japan, Spain, Greece, and Austria representing the consumers and Thailand, Nigeria and Sri Lanka from the producers side.

The U.S. Senate ratified the agreement in July, but the documents have yet to reach the U.N.