At year's end, Congress approved implementing legislation permitting the
U.S. to carry out fully its commitments under International Coffee
Agreement Specifically, the legislation enables us to meet our part of an
understanding negotiated last fall among members of the Agreement, which
defends, by use of export quotas, a price range well below coffee prices of
previous years and which commits major coffee producers to eliminate cartel
arrangements that manipulated future markets to raise prices. The way is
now open to a fully-functioning International Coffee Agreement which can
help to stabilize this major world commodity market. The results will be
positive for both consumers--who will be less likely to suffer from sharp
increases in coffee prices--and producers--who can undertake future
investment with assurance of greater protection against disruptive price
fluctuations in their exports.