Coffee Nations to Ask U.S. to Support Quotas

Central American coffee producers will meet with a U.S. trade official today to push for Washington’s support for a new international coffee quota plan.

The Central Americans will meet in Washington with Myles Frechette, assistant trade representative for Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa, to discuss positions ahead of the International Coffee Organization meeting in London on April 6.

“What we want is for there to be no doubt about what (the United States) is going to say in London,” said David Robleto, president of the National Coffee Commission.

But the delegation will face an uphill road. The United States, the world’s biggest coffee market, has always opposed any renewal of export limits, saying the free market should set prices.

The Central Americans also want to make clear to coffee consuming countries that they are unified in their support for export limits to lift sagging prices.

“There should be no doubt that Central American countries and Latin American countries have come out in favor of market regulation,” Robleto said.

Brazil last week dropped its opposition to an international coffee accord, removing a major roadblock to a price-regulating agreement.

Central American countries have seen their fragile economies battered by international prices, which dropped to 17-year lows last month for the region’s mild Arabica coffee. Coffee is a major source of export income throughout the region.

Robleto blasted Mexico for its apparent opposition to a new quota system, which would replace the pact that collapsed in July, 1989.

The Mexican state news agency Notimex last week quoted the director of the Mexican Coffee Institute as saying Mexico favored a non-quota agreement.

The Central American delegation at the Washington meeting will be headed by Costa Rica’s 2nd Vice President Arnoldo Lopez Echandi and will include Robleto as well as representatives of Guatemala and El Salvador.