BANGKOK, Thailand (July 9, 2001)—Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia have agreed in principle to form a new organization to control rubber trading and production in their countries, according to a report from the Bangkok Post.
This organization, the Tripartite Rubber Corp., has a goal of reducing natural rubber output by 4 percent through replacing rubber trees with palm oil trees, the newspaper said.
Sources in the U.S. said they had no direct word of the establishment of the organization, which has held several ministerial meetings between the three natural rubber growing countries over the past couple of years.
"We feel the best way to monitor a situation like this is to see how the market reacts, and so far the market is not reacting," said Kip Tobin, president of Centrotrade Rubber U.S.A. in Akron and of the Rubber Trade Association of North America.