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      The proposal, initiated by the U.S., Was withdrawn last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.
  

