Thailand, Malaysia, RI to discuss INRO

Thailand, Malaysia, RI to discuss INRO

BANGKOK (Reuters): Thai, Malaysian and Indonesian ministers will meet on July 24-25 to formulate a common stance on whether to withdraw from the International Natural Rubber Organization (INRO), a senior Thai official said yesterday.

Deputy Agriculture Minister Somchai Sunthornwat told Reuters that the meeting would be held on the southern resort island of Phuket.

"Thailand would like to consult on the issue with other two major rubber producers -- Indonesia and Malaysia -- that three of us should have a common stance on the matter. Thailand does not want to withdraw from the group alone," he said.

"We learned from media reports that Malaysia and Indonesia expressed interest to get out of the group as well. But I need to listen to their views firsthand," he added.

Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia are the world top producers and exporters of natural rubber. Thailand alone is forecast to produce 2.0-2.2 million tons of rubber this year, more than 80 percent of which will be exported.

INRO groups the world's top producers and consumers.

Thailand has been unhappy with INRO after failing to convince the grouping to raise market intervention prices to prop up weak prices.

"I personally think INRO has been inactive because the government still has to spend of lot of money shoring up local rubber prices," Somchai said.

"And the current scheme, which is originally scheduled to end by the end of September, could be extended as rubber prices are still poor," he said.

Somchai said the authorities would also invite representatives from the private sector to participate in the meeting.

"We want to know from the industry what sort of impact the decision to pull out or not to pull out from INRO will have on them," he said.

Rubber prices have slid steadily since late last year. As a result, Thai rubber has fetched lower foreign exchange revenues despite larger export volume during the first quarter of this year.

Thailand shipped 590,000 tons during the first three months of 1998 compared with 530,000 tons during the same period a year ago. But the value in dollar terms fell to US$423 million from $510 million.