Tradewinds

ABOUT two thirds of 39,000 black pearls offered in the first full auction by Cook Islands Pearls Ltd was sold after five hours of bidding on June 14. Organisers said a total 54 lots had a total reserve price of $2.7 million but was expected to fetch $4,5 million. The highest successful bid of US$ll4 thousand came from Kikuchi Pearl Co Ltd of Japan. □ FIJI recorded a balance of payments surplus of about US$l4 million in its international trade in the first three months of this year, compared with a deficit of more than $3.5 million for the same period last year. □ Fiji’s five commercial banks and the Reserve Bank are moving to establish a forward-exchange market to protect im porters and exporters from foreign exchange fluctuations. It has been avail able to exporters only since 1985. □ A UNDP report commissioned by the Fiji Trade and Investment Board has reccomended 13-year tax holidays for tax-free factories be cut to five years. It proposes stepping down company income tax exemption from year five to year 13 by 10 percentage points annually. The recommendations could be included in tax-free zone legislation being drawn up by the Fiji State Law Office. It also proposed company income tax exemption for all foreign investments, abolition of income tax exemptions for local investors, and that minimum wage rates and compliance with local working regu lations be approval conditions for tax-free factories and non-tax free factories. □