NEW RUBBER PACT TO BE FORMALLY ADOPTED TOMORROW A new International Natural Rubber Agreement (INRA) will be formally adopted tomorrow, chairman of the negotiating conference Manaspas Xuto of Thailand said. "The successful negotiation of the new agreement represents a significant step forward in international economic cooperation," he told a news conference. The new INRA is to replace the current one which expires in October. Delegates at the renegotiation conference, held under the auspices of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), reached agreement over the central elements of a new accord last weekend. Xuto said the new INRA retains the reference price -- of 201.66 Malaysian/Singapore cents per kilo -- and indicative prices set in the present pact. Price levels will continue to be expressed in the joint Malaysian/Singapore currency, he added. The new agreement also maintains the basic structure of price ranges -- the "may sell" and "may buy" points at plus and minus 15 pct of the reference price, as well as the "must sell" and "must buy" zones at plus and minus 20 pct of it. Xuto said the new pact maintains the same objectives that were set in the present accord. "The most important of these are to stabilise prices and to achieve a balanced growth between demand and supply," he said. The buffer stock remains the sole instrument of market intervention for price stabilisation and its maximum capacity is unchanged at 550,000 tonnes, Xuto added. At this month's session, which was the fourth attempt in two years to negotiate a new INRA, the main issue to be resolved concerned the mechanism for adjusting the reference price. It was agreed to conduct reviews of the reference price every 15 months -- instead of the current 18-month intervals. The extent of the adjustment was also modified. Under the present agreement if the daily market indicator price has been above the upper intervention ("may sell") price (currently 231 Malaysian/Singapore cents) or below the lower intervention price ("may buy") price (171 cents at present) for six months, the reference price is then revised by five pct or whatever amount the International Natural Rubber Council decides. Under the new pact, the adjustment under these circumstances will be five pct unless the Council decides on a higher adjustment. Similarly, when buffer stock purchases or sales amount to 300,000 tonnes, there would be an automatic adjustment of three pct under the new accord unless the Council decides on a higher percentage. Throughout the talks, which began on March 9, producers had strongly opposed a consumer proposal to lower the reference price and the "lower indicative price" (or floor price) of 150 cents in the present pact if the buffer stock, currently 360,000 tonnes, reached 450,000 tonnes. The proposal, initiated by the U.S., was withdrawn last Friday, setting the stage for compromise at the weekend. Since then negotiators have worked on the finer details of the new pact. On the question of conditions for entry into force of the new INRA, Xuto said it was tentatively agreed that governments accounting for 75 pct of world exports and 75 pct of world imports approved or ratified the new agreement before it became operational. The present agreement had a figure of 80 pct.