INRO calls for rubber pact

INRO calls for rubber pact

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): The International Natural Rubber
Organization (INRO) ended two days of talks yesterday with a call
on its 27 members to quickly ratify the new UN-brokered price
pact hammered out in Geneva in February.

INRO endorsed a call on the UN secretary-general to arrange
for the new pact to be opened for signature from now until Dec.
28 for it to succeed the 1987 second International Natural Rubber
Agreement (INRA II).

"The (INRO) council has urged governments to do their utmost
to ratify the new agreement as soon as possible so that it could
be enforced immediately after the expiry of INRA II," said
council chairman Anura Ekanayake of Sri Lanka.

INRA III will be enforced for a four-year duration as agreed
by members during negotiations in Geneva, instead of five years
as in the previous two pacts, officials said.

There had been no indication so far of any dissenting member
refusing to ratify the accord, INRO officials said.

INRO, which groups six producers led by Indonesia, Thailand
and Malaysia, and 21 consuming nations led by the United States,
Japan and the European Union, administers INRA through operation
of a buffer stock mechanism to stabilize prices.

The governments have been given until Jan. 21, 1997, to
deposit instruments of ratification or to notify provisional
application of the agreement, Ekanayake said.