RI making sporadic use of USDA credits

RI making sporadic use of USDA credits

SINGAPORE (Reuters): Indonesia is making only sporadic use of U.S. Department of Agriculture farm export credit guarantees and opening letters of credit is still very tough, USDA General Sales Manager Chris Goldthwait told Reuters yesterday.

"It comes in fits and starts," he said in a telephone interview, referring to the country's use of the U.S. export credit guarantee program.

"Over the past six weeks we've seen about $30 million worth of business under the program, not as much as there could be," he said.

The amount of business done so far for Indonesia in the fiscal year to September 1998 was about $30 million for cotton and $70 million for soybeans, he added.

Turning to the situation on Indonesian letters of credit to finance imports, he said, "It's still very difficult...some are being opened in Indonesia and, I gather, a little bit is being done here in Singapore."

Goldthwait stopped off in Singapore at the start of a tour through Asia, leaving for Jakarta later today and taking in the Philippines and South Korea next week before returning to the U.S. on July 30.

He met banks and trading companies in Singapore to talk about the economic and banking situation, and use of the credit guarantee program.

During his trip to Asia, he'll be trying to make progress on negotiating a PL480 Title I agreement with Indonesia.

Public Law 480 is a program to boost U.S. farm exports and help foreign nations, and Title I provides for government-to- government export transactions with financing in foreign currency.

Goldthwait will also look into the operation of the commercial credit guarantee program for U.S. farm exports -- GSM102 -- in all the countries of the region, especially Indonesia, the Philippines and South Korea.

Thirdly, he'll be doing some preliminary and exploratory work in Indonesia with respect to the new food aid initiative announced last weekend by President Clinton.

Clinton said the USDA would buy 2.5 million tonnes of U.S wheat to prop up slumping local prices and pledged that the wheat would be donated to needy countries such as Indonesia.

"How much will go to Indonesia eventually? We don't really have any idea as yet," he said.

"Part of what I'll be trying to do is figure out what level might be appropriate both in terms of the humanitarian need and the need to avoid displacement of commercial sales," he added.