It is vitally important that the industrialised countries of the world work towards convergence of their economies and economic policies, U.S. Ambassador to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development Edward Streator said. He told an American Chamber of Commerce lunch the world was changing rapidly and national attitudes had to alter accordingly if growth was not to falter and world depression set in. Liberalisation of world trade in money, goods and services and technology was an overriding goal, he added.

Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) drew up a final plan to expand domestic demand and boost imports in time for Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone’s visit to Washington next week, LDP officials said. The plan calls for additional fiscal measures worth more than 5,000 billion yen, a large-scale supplementary budget for the current fiscal year started April 1, and concentration of more than 80 pct of the annual public works budget in the first half of the year, they said.

Japan’s Jiji Press quoted Bank of Japan Governor Satoshi Sumita as telling Japanese reporters the central bank will continue determined market intervention to prevent a further rise in the value of the yen. Sumita, who is attending an annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank, also said he does not think the yen will continue to rise, Jiji reported. He said the Bank of Japan is keeping close contact with other major industrial nations on concerted market intervention, Jiji said.

Oil output in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) dropped ten pct in March from February to an average 1.05 mln barrels per day (bpd), mainly because of customer resistance to fixed prices of Abu Dhabi oil, industry sources said. The UAE quota assigned by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is 902,000 bpd. Traders could buy Abu Dhabi’s Umm Shaif crude on the spot market for 17.50 dlrs a barrel yesterday, against the official OPEC price of 17.

Despite the past severe winter, damage to rapeseed acreage in Poland appears to be minor, the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Counselor in Warsaw said in a field report. The report, dated June 11, said official statements show that about 40,000 hectares, less than 10 pct of sown area, was plowed under this year compared with the usual 15 pct. Rapeseed production is forecast at 1.1 mln tonnes, 200,000 tonnes below the record crop produced in 1986, but 35 pct above previous forecasts, the report said.

European Community foreign ministers agreed to formal talks on signing an economic pact with Hungary, in a move which could clear the way towards establishing EC diplomatic ties with Budapest, EC officials said. They said Community foreign ministers agreed to mandate the EC executive Commission to open talks on a cooperation pact which would boost trade and economic ties with Hungary. Earlier this year, Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister Jozsef Marjai said Hungary might be willing to normalise relations with the Community in exchange for such a deal, according to EC officials.

Lack of rainfall in recent weeks may have affected Ivory Coast 1987/88 main crop cocoa prospects, although good precipitation in the last half of June and in July could still reverse the situation, trade sources said. They said the crop is still likely to be fairly large and it is too early to determine the consequences of the dry spell on the harvest. “This year’s crop will probably be another good one.

The Soviet Union’s first official observer at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said he came away from this week’s ADB annual meeting with a favourable impression but that no decision has been made on whether the Soviet Union should join as a full member. Yurij V. Ponomarev, international managing director of the State Bank, said he will file a formal report when he returns to Moscow, but it will not contain any recommendation on membership.

The heads of the central banks of Mexico and Peru have met in Mexico city to coordinate actions aimed at consolidating the upward trend in the price of silver, the official newspaper El Peruano said. It said that Peruvian central bank president Leonel Figueroa met yesterday with the president of the bank of Mexico, Miguel Mancera Aguayo. Peru, which froze new sales of refined silver and its government-marketed silver ore on tuesday, is the world’s second biggest producer of the precious metal.

Japan’s policy of self-sufficiency in rice is an example of extreme protectionism, visiting U.S. Agriculture secretary Richard Lyng told a press conference. He told the National Press Club of Japan that because Japan had a large export balance, not just with the U.S. But with other countries, it was inconsistent for it to be 100 pct self-sufficient in one product. Speaking after farm trade talks with Japan agriculture minister Mutsuki Kato, Lyng said the U.