MAJOR DIFFERENCES RESOLVED AT RUBBER PACT TALKS
Negotiators at a United Nations
conference on a new International Natural Rubber Agreement
(INRA) have agreed on basic elements in a new pact, conference
chairman Manaspas Xuto said.
    "We have resolved major differences of opinion," he told
Reuters.
    Xuto said the way is now cleared for drafting a new accord,
to replace the current one which expires in October.
    Xuto said: "I welcome the friendly and cooperative
atmosphere that has prevailed without interruption" since the
talks began last Monday.
    "It is my hope that delegations will go back home and try to
ratify the new agreement," he added.
    The renegotiation conference, under the auspices of the
U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), is the
fourth such meeting in two years.
    Xuto said producers and consumers had agreed on four
points:
    1) Regular price reviews will be held every 15 months.
    Previously consumers were proposing 12-month intervals
between price reviews instead of 18 in the current pact.
    2) If the average of the daily market indicator prices over
six months prior to a review is below (or above) the lower
intervention price (or the upper intervention price), the
reference price will be automatically revised downwards (or
upwards) by five pct unless the International Natural Rubber
Organisation council decides on a higher percentage.
    If buffer stock purchases or sales reach 300,000 tonnes,
the reference price will be lowered or raised by three pct
unless the council decides on a higher percentage.
    3) If the buffer stock reaches 400,000 tonnes, the price at
which the additional contingency stock of 150,000 tonnes is
brought into operation will be two Malaysian/Singapore cents
above the floor price -- or 152 cents.
    4) The floor price will not be breached. Throughout the
talks producers had adamantly resisted a consumer proposal to
lower the floor price of 150 cents if the buffer stock,
currently 360,000 tonnes, rose to 450,000 tonnes.
    The proposal, initiated by the U.S., Was withdrawn last
night, setting the stage for compromise.
    Legal drafting of provisions will start next week and
formal adoption of the new accord by the 40 countries taking
part in the conference is expected to take place on March 20.
    The current conference was widely seen as the last chance
to clinch a deal. Three previous attempts to negotiate a new
five- year pact had failed, the last round breaking down in
October over consumer demands for tighter controls of the
buffer stock.
    The United States, Japan, West Germany, France, Italy and
Britain are the major consumers.
    UNCTAD's latest estimates project an increase of 8.5 pct in
rubber prices this year and 4.1 pct in 1988.
 REUTER
