Global coffee charter ripe for US-led changeAdd to Clippings

REUTERS[ TUESDAY, MARCH 07, 2006 01:20:22 AM]
NEW YORK: The US, the top coffee importing nation and a proponent of free trade, is on a mission to shake up a global coffee charter before it expires in ’07, the head of a US coffee association said. After a 12-year split from the International Coffee Organisation (ICO), Washington last spring acceded to the group’s 2001 International Coffee Agreement, which promotes consumption and aims to foster a ’sustainable coffee economy.’

Now that agreement is ripe for some big changes, Robert Nelson, the president and chief executive of National Coffee Association USA, said. “The bottom line is that it really looks as though renegotiating a new agreement will provide tremendous benefit as opposed to simply extending the current one with some minor modifications,” Mr Nelson said.

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