KUALA LUMPUR: Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia' pledge to withhold exports of 350,000 tonnes of natural rubber (NR) until March 2018 comes into immediate effect on Thursday.
The three countries will also push ahead with greater domestic consumption of the commodity, according to the Bangkok-based International Rubber Consortium Ltd (IRCo).
The IRCo said the withholding of exports of NR was under the framework of the International Tripartite Rubber Council’s (ITRC) Agreed Export Tonnage Scheme (AETS).
To recap, the pledge was made during the ITRC senior officials meeting on Dec 22, 2017 in Bangkok. It will be monitored by the ITRC Monitoring and Surveillance Committee.
“The AETS will be implemented through their respective domestic regulators including addressing business commitments under existing forward contracts.
“Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia will also cooperate to increase NR consumption domestically,” the IRCo said.
The strategy is to use NR in various sectors such as transportation, infrastructure, sports, defence, health and consumer goods, rubberised road construction, rail pads for railway construction, dock fenders and sea toll and other suitable areas.
The IRCo said Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia are confident that with the joint implementation of these measures, the NR prices will recover and continue to be fair and remunerative to all rubber smallholders and other stakeholders in NR industry.
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