Major rubber producers reaffirm commitment
Major rubber producers reaffirm commitment
SINGAPORE (Reuter): Major rubber producing states reaffirmed their commitments to a producer-consumer price pact and voiced optimism that a new accord would be ratified in the near future.
The Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) said in a statement that Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Thailand were committed to the International Natural Rubber Agreement (INRA).
The four ANRPC members are among the producer members of the current five-year pact, administered by the International Natural Rubber Organization (INRO). The current pact runs out in December.
Major rubber producers and consumers hammered out a new four- year successor agreement in Geneva last February but no countries have signed the pact so far.
Countries have until Dec. 28 to sign the agreement and must ratify it within a year.
"The ANRPC member countries urged the importing and other natural rubber exporting countries to take a similar positive attitude towards the ratification of the agreement," the ANRPC statement said.
The current pact comprises six producer states -- Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, and 21 importing countries, led by the United States, the European Union, China and Japan.
Rosediana Suharto, head of the Indonesian delegation to the ANRPC, dismissed talk that producers would not back the new pact and said Indonesia was in the process of signing it.
"It is not true that the producers do not want the new agreement," she told reporters.
"We are not adverse to the agreement," said Ahmad Zubeir Noordin, the chief Malaysian delegate.
But he declined to say whether Malaysia would sign the new INRA. "The present one will not expire until Dec. 28 and it's not Christmas yet," she said.
A source in the Thai delegation said his government had agreed to sign the pact. Officials from Sri Lanka said on Wednesday Colombo had also agreed to sign the new pact.
Failure
Officials said failure by major rubber exporters and consumers to sign the treaty by Dec. 28 would seriously harm the future of the commodity pact. P.O. Thomas, a senior official at INRO, said: "If they don't sign before December 28, that means they are not giving the pact a chance to survive."
Meanwhile delegates to the meeting said rubber production by the seven-member Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) is forecast to rise to 5.24 million tons in 1996 from 1995's 5.09 million.
The ANRPC forecast members' production at 5.35 million tons in 1997, 5.91 million in 2000 and 6.36 million in 2005, one delegate said.
It forecast output by Thailand, the world's top grower, at 2.4 million tons in 2000 from 1.8 million in 1995.
Indonesian production may rise to 1.8 million tons from 1.44 million over the same period, while Malaysian output is expected to stagnate at 1.2 million tons.
Singapore is not a rubber producer but a major trading and transshipment center for Southeast Asian rubber.
Delegates said the anticipated 1995 production of 5.09 million tons was a 6.0 percent jump over 1994's 4.80 million.
The significant rise reflected the buoyant rubber market in 1994, which pushed prices to eight year highs.