INRO meeting to pick new buffer stock manager

INRO meeting to pick new buffer stock manager

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): The International Natural Rubber Organization (INRO) opened talks here yesterday, during which a new buffer stock manager will be selected from six candidates proposed by the United States and the European Union, officials said.

"The U.S. nominated two candidates, while the EU gave four names. But it is basically a decision that has to be made by the consumers themselves at this (weeklong) INRO session," said Sucharit Promdej of Thailand.

Sucharit is the executive secretary of the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC).

Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Thailand are in INRO. ANRPC's other members are India and Papua New Guinea.

INRO's present buffer stock manager, Aldo Hofmeister, is due to retire in July after spending the past nine years trying to satisfy 26 governments through buying and selling stockpiled rubber to stabilize prices.

"By tradition, the buffer stock manager is an American," said the 71-year old Illinois-born Hofmeister, whose two predecessors were from the United States.

The change comes as members of the Kuala Lumpur-based INRO try to bridge their differences and prepare for the conclusion of a new global pact in Geneva in October.

INRO groups six producing countries -- Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Sri Lanka -- with 20 consuming countries, including members of the European Union, the United States, Japan and China.

It administers the 14-year old International Natural Rubber Agreement (INRA) that has economic provisions with a "may-buy," "may-sell" and a "must-buy," "must-sell" mechanism to guide the buffer stock manager in his market interventions.

INRA expired in December and has been extended for a year pending conclusion of negotiations for the successor pact.

Good job

"He (Hofmeister) has done a good job and has kept within provisions that govern the role of the buffer stock manager," said Farouk Ishak of Malaysia and spokesman for the producers.

Producers have in the past criticized Hofmeister for being slow and ineffective in intervening to prop up prices in a bearish market.

INRO members, who met last month to negotiate the new pact, are to meet for their second round of negotiations in Geneva from Oct. 3-14 to hammer out the new accord.

The president of the UN Conference on Natural Rubber, Peter Lai, is meeting with INRO members informally at the weeklong session here to try to narrow differences before the October meet.

"The main issue in the negotiations is the economic provisions that relate to the buffer stock pricing mechanism. Consumers don't want any changes, but producers want the whole mechanism reviewed," said Farouk.

"Producers want a new pact hammered out somehow by year-end. There will no more extension," he said.

Producers, who met among themselves on the weekend ahead of the INRO session, would further scrutinize consumers' proposals at a meeting in Medan, Indonesia, in early August, Sucharit said.

The ANRPC meeting was chaired by Rosediana Suharto, spokesperson for the producers in the INRA negotiations in Geneva. She is director of Indonesia's national export center.