INRO manager faces tough balancing act
INRO manager faces tough balancing act
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): After having dealt with rubber for the last 26 years, James Hegarty is about to embark on a tough balancing mission to try keep 26 governments happy about the price of the highly volatile commodity.
The 57-year-old American, whose career evolved around serving U.S. tire maker Firestone even before it was bought by Japan's Bridgestone, will from September be the fourth buffer stock manager for the International Natural Rubber Organization (INRO).
Hegarty, who hails from Akron, Ohio, takes over from 71-year- old Illinois-born Aldo Hofmeister, who is resigning after more than eight years, INRO's longest-serving buffer stock manager.
His job is to help Kuala Lumpur-based INRO administer a global price pact hammered out 14 years ago by six producer and 20 consumer countries by buying and selling rubber to stabilize prices.
"I will approach my new job in an objective and straightforward manner to accomplish the key purpose of the pact. I have to operate within the confines of the agreement," Hegarty told AFP in an interview.
He has a big task at hand to convince producers he can remain unbiased in decision-making, having been a veteran in purchasing rubber and coming from a major consumer nation.
The job of buffer stock manager is normally given to a consumer member nation and the United States is the world's largest rubber consumer.
New agreement
Hired to serve for the duration of what is normally a five- year pact, Hegarty was chosen out of six candidates put forward by the United States and the European Union.
He comes in at a time when the International Natural Rubber Agreement (INRA) is about to savor a new lease of life, but not before undergoing turbulent times.
The contracting parties are preparing to hammer out a new agreement at UN-sponsored negotiations in Geneva in early October. The existing INRA expired in December and has been extended for a year pending talks on a successor pact.
Hegarty is also coming in when Hofmeister is busily selling down INRO's 220,000-ton stockpile to control prices, which have soared to five-year highs.
"It is a rather dynamic time as it offers me the opportunity to view INRO's operations. I could be starting off with a clean slate," Hegarty said, referring to the possibility of Hofmeister having to clean out his entire stocks to stabilize the hike.
Analysts say the rubber accord has turned out to be arguably the best and most successful surviving producer-consumer pact ever devised, despite some shortcomings.