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.