MIXED ASIAN REACTION TO NEW RUBBER PACT Governments of major Asian producing countries have welcomed the conclusion of a new International Natural Rubber Agreement (INRA), but growers and traders are unhappy with the development, according to views polled by Reuter correspondents. Officials in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, which produce the bulk of the world's rubber, said they expected the new pact to continue to stabilise prices and help their rubber industries remain viable in the long-term. But traders and growers said they were against the new pact because its buffer stock mechanism was likely to interefere with free market forces and prevent sharp rubber price rises. The new INRA, to replace the current one which expires on October 22, was formally adopted by most of the world's producers and consumers in Geneva last Friday. It will be open for signature at the U.N. Headquarters in New York from May 1 to December 31 this year and will enter into force provisionally when ratified by countries accounting for 75 pct of world rubber exports and 75 pct of world imports. Malaysian Primary Industries Minister Lim Keng Yaik said the formal adoption of a new pact had dispelled fears of liquidation of some 360,000 tonnes of INRA buffer stock rubber and a possible depression of prices. He expressed confidence that the new INRA would continue to keep prices stable by selling or buying rubber as prices rose or fell through its buffer stock system. Malaysia was also happy that in the new INRA financing of purchases for the normal buffer stock of 400,000 tonnes and a contingency buffer stock of 150,000 tonnes would be done through direct cash contributions from members, he said. Under the existing pact, members can borrow from banks to finance INRA's buffer stock purchases. This has been viewed with concern by some members who fear the INRA may become indebted and ultimately face collapse, like the International Tin Agreement. "This will ensure the buffer stock operation is carried out without any financial encumbrance," Lim said. Malaysia, the world's largest producer, was seeking cabinet approval to join the new INRA and hoped other producers and consumers would also become members, he said. Officials in Jakarta said the new pact would bring benefit to Indonesia's rubber industry's by stabilising prices. It was unlikely to collapse like the tin agreement because its new financial provisions had been tightened, they said. Thai officials told Reuters they were optimistic the new pact was viable because it strictly limited the extent of debt the INRA buffer stock manager might commit to his market operations. Malaysian growers, however, said they preferred a free rubber market because an INRA had a tendency to keep prices at levels that were only acceptable to consumers. "With the INRA's ability to keep prices at a certain stable level, consumers are assured of rubber at almost a fixed price, while producers may never see sharp price rises," a Malaysian Rubber Producers Council source told Reuters. Producers also wanted a free rubber market without the overhang of a 360,000 tonne INRA buffer stock which had psychologically prevented price rises, he said. State plantation officials in Sri Lanka said prices had been depressed since INRA's inception and the creation of a buffer stock, and they seemed unlikely to rise. Sri Lanka should not be a member of the INRA because it was expensive to maintain a buffer stock, they added. Traders in the region, meanwhile, said prices might be pressured by the new pact in the long term as its potential to stabilise prices and buffer stock capacity would spur producers to produce more. Most Malaysian and Singapore traders said the new pact's conclusion had little impact on prices and it was unlikely to allow sharp price fluctuations in future. "The 360,000 tonnes in the INRA buffer stock must be liquidated and a free market returned," a Malaysian trader said. Japanese traders said the new pact had a chance for success as most world producers and consumers had adopted it, but they questioned the ability of some financially-strapped producers to finance buffer stock operations.