Tin body keen for observers to join it

Tin body keen for observers to join it

SINGAPORE (Reuter): The Association of Tin Producing Countries (ATPC) would welcome observers Vietnam and Peru joining the organization following the withdrawal of Thailand and Australia, conference sources said.

Thailand, which will leave from Oct. 1, and Australia quit the ATPC because both are becoming net importers of tin, delegates attending the executive council meeting of the ATPC said.

Indonesia, Malaysia, Bolivia, China and Nigeria remain members of the ATPC. Zaire also belongs, but is plagued by political problems, produces almost no tin and has stopped attending meetings. Brazil has observer status.

ATPC ministers are scheduled to meet today and tomorrow discuss the state of the tin market and take up the fate of an export quota system that has been largely ignored by its own members, conference sources said.

There is a proposal that the suspension of the quota system be extended for another year to see if the current free market system benefits the organization, another delegate said.

"The proposal is on the table. The ministers will make a decision on this when they meet next week," the delegate said last week.

The head of the Brazilian delegation to the ATPC said he expected the organization to hold together, despite the withdrawal of Thailand and Australia as members.

"We expect so (the ATPC to continue). Even if there are only five countries, they still together account for 85 percent of world production," Miguel Navarrede-Fernandez, general director of Brazil's Ministry of Mines and Energy, told reporters.