Negotiators drafting a new international cocoa agreement are "optimistic" they will conclude their work by Friday on the treaty´s objectives and on the participation of the private sector in the new agreement and in the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO), the Chairman of the Negotiating Committee, Adriaan Frijlink (Netherlands), said last night.
In meetings that began under UNCTAD auspices on 13 November and continue through 24 November, negotiators representing the main cocoa-exporting and importing countries have been hammering out the terms of a new agreement, to replace the 1993 agreement which is set to expire on 30 September 2001.
As of Monday evening 20 November, the Negotiating Committee of the United Nations Cocoa Conference had agreed to transmit to the Legal Drafting Committee, for its approval, provisions of the 2000 Agreement by which:
- Members will, by May 2001 and to the extent possible, provide the Executive Director of the International Cocoa Council - the governing body for the world´s cocoa industry, and responsible for implementation of the agreement - with information on stocks of cocoa beans held in their respective countries, in order to "promote market transparency";
- Members failing to supply such information may be required by the Council to explain the reasons for non-compliance, and the Council may offer the necessary support measures to overcome existing difficulties; it may further take "such additional measures as it deems necessary" to deal with non-compliance;
- Developing importing members, and least developed countries which are members, whose interests are "adversely affected" by measures taken under the agreement may apply to the Council for "appropriate differential and remedial measures"; and
- Unlike the previous agreement, the text now under negotiation would institutionalize the role to be played by the private sector, which is likely to be invited to bring its particular expertise to bear in ICCO´s future work through the creation of a consultative board involving the private sector.
In addition to the issue of private sector participation, still in the negotiating stages are articles on objectives and definitions; ICCO staff, and their work programme; the organization´s relationship with the Common Fund for Commodities and other sources of financing; supply and demand; definition and development of a sustainable cocoa economy; market-monitoring and other provisions, including on relief from obligations in exceptional circumstances; and fair labour standards.
The International Cocoa Organization was established by the International Cocoa Agreement of 1972 and is headquartered in London. Its Executive Committee is composed of 10 exporting and 10 importing members, elected for each "cocoa year". It computes and publishes a daily price of cocoa beans, expressed in Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) per ton. The price is the average of daily quotations for cocoa beans of the nearest three active future trading months on the London Cocoa Terminal Market and on the New York Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa exchange at the time of the London close. (For background, see TAD/INF/070 and TAD/INF/071 and Corr.)
