sugar agreement

Happiness is a sugar agreement

Within a few hours of his return from London in June Fiji’s Primer Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mam called a news conference—on the vitae; subject of sugar.

The method of its disposal is fa£ from being understood, or evens vaguely comprehended, by the averag»§ canefarmer.

It was reassuring for them to learn that the Prime Minister was satisfieos with what had been achieved at thd discussions in London between Comrr monwealth sugar-producing countries; and Britain.

Ratu Mara said arrangements ha«n been made to have Fiji’s High Comrr missioner in London accredited tcf the Common Market countries.

“The market for the Commonrn wealth Sugar Agreement countries it assured until 1974—from then on, ww have an assurance that the marker will continue, particularly for deaf veloping Commonwealth the PM said.

“This will be confirmed by joinin;n the Common Market by associatiomc We have from now until 1974 td negotiate the terms of this associo ation”.

While Fiji was assured of a comr tinued market at a satisfactory pries! in the UK for the annual quota co 140.000 tons of sugar, a market fosi the balance of Fiji’s production hac to be found outside the Commomc wealth Sugar Agreement.

Fiji’s sales outside the CSA includb 40.000 tons for the USA, and other sales in Canada, New Zealand, Japans Singapore and Malaysia.

Ratu Mara pointed out that ne T s competition would arise in the likelTs event of Australia being phased out o CSA after 1974.

“It is for this reason that we havrs pressed the EEC to join the sugsg agreement, which provides quotas foi various member countries and woulu provide quotas for EEC memberszi he said. . , ...

Mr. Geoffrey Rippon, Britain s chmr negotiator for membership of thft EEC, impressed Fiji’s Prime Ministeal “Mr. Rippon made it quite clesa that he was fully confident that tHI EEC was sincerely determined t honour the undertakings to the Com monwealth sugar-producing countries but said the British Governmeiai would be prepared, if necessary, 1 use its veto to assure equitable as rangements for marketing our sugsgi in Britain”, Ratu Mara added.

Fiji bauxife find

'most important'

Mining equipment is being installed in preparation for extracting the Savulevu bauxite deposits on Fiji’s island of Vanua Levu. The mine, to be operated jointly by three Japanese companies, has enormous economic importance.

Experts say it is the most impor tant mine opened in Fiji since gold was found at Vatukoula in the 19305.

Shareholders in the locally registered Bauxite Fiji Ltd. are the Nippon Light Metal Co. (with a 50 per cent, holding), Showa Denko Co. (15 per cent.) and Sumitomo Chemical Co. (25 per cent.).

According to their agreement with the Fiji Government they must start exporting the ore from August next year. They will invest $2,500,000 in setting up the mine.

The secretary of Bauxite Fiji Ltd., Mr. Toni Ishikawa, has said that the five million tons of known reserves at Savulevu would be mined at a rate of 250,000 tons a year . . . giving the mine at least 20 years’ life.

But there are complications. Al though the company holds a licence to mine 2,000 acres, it still needs site and road access licences. It also has to complete an agreement with the Native Land Trust Board about the amount of compensation payable to about 10 mataqali landholding units whose land would be affected.

About 70 per cent, of the loan capital for the mining project will :ome from the Overseas Economic Co-Operation Fund, a Japanese Gov jrnment institution, according to Mr. tshikawa.

Lever's trebles profit

Lever’s Pacific Plantations Pty.

Ud. trebled its net profit last calendar 'ear.

The annual accounts of the com pany just released in Sydney show

that the net profit jumped from $57,792 to $188,641 last year.

The big profit increase was after a leap in the depreciation provision from $135,464 to $625,948.

Total shareholder’s funds rose by $191,382 to $2,275,928.

The value in the books of the land and buildings of the company was down by $52,910 to $1,796,429.

The provision for cyclone damage dropped from $61,208 to $45,808.

The company is a subsidiary of Unilever (Commonwealth Holdings) Ltd. It operates plantations in the British Solomon Islands.

Go-ahead for

Pago watch deal

After a host of false starts, American Samoa will be taking ad vantage of federal legislation which allows the free import into the US of goods manufactured in the terri tory, Bulova Watch Company has leased land and will begin construction shortly on an assembly plant which will be the first building in a new industrial park which the American Samoan Government is developing near the airport at Tafuna.

Under the law, which has been used successfully in the Virgin Islands and Guam, parts can be im ported to American Samoa for assembly. If the money spent on local labour enhances the value of the parts by a certain percentage the finished project can be shipped to the US free of duty.

Bulova and Samoa negotiated with the US Commerce Department and secured an allocation which will allow free admission to 205,000 watches to the US this year. Bulova is going all out to get actual assembly started and so take advantage of this year’s

allocation. The movements will be purchased in Switzerland. There will be only one women’s model, assembled at the beginning.

The firm has worked with local schools in testing high school seniors, and between 50 and 60 of them will be hired to work in the plant. Bulova also is looking for a Samoan manager to be trained in the US and to then take over the assembly operation.

The search is being made in Samoan communities on the US West Coast as well as in Samoa.

The Samoan Office of Economic Planning and Development looks upon the Bulova project as an “ice breaker”, that a successful operation by Bulova will induce other manufac turers to open assembly plants there.

Nauru looks for

new market-s

Nauru hopes to develop new markets for its phosphate in the Philippines and Taiwan, Mr. J. F.

Pi Ibe am , Nauru Government’s representative in Australia said in June after his visit to Manila with President Deßoburt. President De- Roburt paid a courtesy call on President Ferdinand Marcos to thank his government for co-sponsoring Nauru (together with Australia) into membership of ECAFE. The two presidents discussed their mutual interests in trade and shipping and phosphate sales were one of the subjects of talks between President Deßoburt, Mr. Pilbeam and Ernesto Maceda, the Philippines Minister for Commerce and Industry. The pos sibility of Nauru becoming a member of the Asian Development Bank was raised in a preliminary discussion with Mr. Watanabe, president of the bank.

President Deßoburt went to Taipeh alone for meetings with Chinese Government when phosphate was again on the agenda.