The successful completion of negotiations on the Common Fund has not yet led to the hoped-for break-through for any of the commodity agreements belonging to the Integrated Programme for Commodities (IPC). Opposition, particularly by the industrialised countries, but also by individual producer...

After five years of tough negotiations at numerous conferences about an integrated Programme for Commodities (IPC) the participating countries agreed in March 1979 on basic and operational regulations for the key instrument of this programme, a Common Fund. In its present version it is closely...

Weighty objections have been raised against stabilization of commodity markets through agreements. The drawbacks of commodity agreements can, however, be largely overcome if the rigid theoretical notion of a price fixed strictly for a long period is abandoned.

This article may be of particular interest in view of the fact that UNCTAD has now for the first time set down a schedule for preparatory negotiations on raw materials. The resolution of UNCTAD IV on the treatment of the integrated action programme for raw materials is now to be realised....

The following article represents an excerpt from a report made by the author on September 30, 1976 to the German-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce in Rio de Janeiro, sponsored by the Fried. Krupp Company. It offers an outlook on the future supply and demand situation for ferrous and non-ferrous...

The following article pinpoints the elements of a possible new order for the commodity markets against the background of the existing market order for raw materials and proposals for its reform which have been made public. The existing order is briefly reviewed in the first part of the article...

This article discusses the advantages and disadvantages of grain reserves and grain banks. One important argument against establishing official reserves is that they are more likely to stiffen the barriers to food trade whereas a financial grain bank might be used to reduce those barriers. A...

UNCTAD's Integrated Programme for Commodities (IPC) would come much closer to being realised, if the industrial and the developing countries could agree on creating the Common Fund. But the Fund remains in dispute. While the LCDs only want to discuss the details of its organisation, the...

The demands in the sphere of raw material policy are a cardinal element of the “New International Economic Order” on which the developing countries are insisting. Dr Hermes, Secretary of State in the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany, discusses the Common Fund and other...