Uruguayan suppliers have agreed to supply Taiwan with only 25,000 tonnes of soybeans out of a total 70,000 tonnes agreed in April, a spokesman for the joint committee of Taiwan’s soybean importers told Reuters. He said a rise in world prices had made the Uruguayans reluctant to ship any soybeans at the agreed price of 226.56 U.S. Dlrs per tonne. The Uruguayans agreed to supply part of the shipment after the Taiwan committee threatened last week to cancel the order, but they postponed delivery to July 1-20 from the original June 5-25, the committee spokesman said.

The offshore oil drilling industry will attract increasing numbers of government connected firms in the 1990s, according to Ronald Tappmeyer, Vice Chairman of Reading and Bates Drilling Co. Tappmeyer told the Offshore Technology Conference that contract drilling was reaching the same kind of situation that oil producing companies reached when their oilfields were nationalized in nations as Venezuela, Iran and Saudi Arabia. He said local connections to the nation whose waters are being drilled was an increasingly important factor in the market.

Speculation abroad that the Bundesbank will steer money market rates lower, opening the for interest rate cuts around Europe, is not shared by many economists and money market dealers within Germany. Speculation has developed that the Bundesbank would engineer lower rates to take pressure off the dollar/mark. A strong rise in U.S. Market rates this month, prompting speculation the Fed would raise its 5-1/2 pct discount rate, has raised the question whether Germany and Japan would also broaden interest rate differentials to support the dollar.

A bill that would impose an oil import fee to support a world floor price for oil of 25 dlrs a barrel was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by 12 Congressmen from oil-producing states. The variable import fee would be dropped if oil prices rise above 25 dlrs a barrel, sponsors of the bill said. Revenues from the fee would be used to buy domestic oil from stripper wells - those that produce 10 barrels a day or less - at a fixed price of 25 dlrs a barrel.

Brazil’s trade surplus in March totalled only 136 mln dlrs compared to 1.13 billion dlrs in the same month last year, director of the Banco do Brasil’s Foreign Trade Department (Cacex) Roberto Fendt said. In a news conference, Fendt attributed the weak performance in the March trade balance to labour strikes in the country. March exports totalled 1.43 billion dlrs, against 1.53 billion dlrs in February, and 2.16 billion dlrs in March 1986.

Hong Kong has not taken unfair advantage of its currency’s link with the U.S. Dollar, Hong Kong monetary affairs secretary David Nendick told the annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank here. He said: “We have taken the rough with the smooth, having to accept a downward adjustment of our economy in 1985 following a period when the U.S. Dollar was clearly overvalued in world terms, but benefiting as that currency subsequently declined.

Parliament approved a proposal to drop all controls on capital outflows, raising the prospect that Taiwan’s vast resevoir of foreign exchange will flow into the world economy. A government spokesman said the new law would be promulgated by President Chiang Ching-Kuo within 10 days and financial authorities would then be empowered to lift controls on currency outflows at any time. Tight restrictions on capital inflows introduced this year will remain in place, the spokesman said.

The failure of the Bangladesh government to tackle the country’s current food crisis could lead to a famine, the leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Khaleda Zia, told a press conference yesterday. Prices of rice rose by at least 25 pct across the country in March and the government has begun emergency rice and wheat sales to lower cereal prices, a food ministry report said. Ministry officials said the next harvest, due in mid-April will ease the situation.

A Soviet geologist said scientists need to coordinate data about onshore and offshore oil deposits to help identify global formations that would indicate other potential discoveries of oil and gas reserves. Vladmir Vladiminovich Semenovich, the head of petroleum geology at Moscow State University, told delegates at the World Petroleum Congress that exploration efficiency could also be improved through new and more sophisticated technology. “We should emphasize that when having the data about petroleum distribution onshore and offshore, it is possible to clarify the idea of global regularities in oil and gas prospects,” Semenovich said.

The Thai Cabinet approved a seven pct increase in the national budget for fiscal 1987/88 starting next October, compared with a 6.2 pct increase for the current year ending September, a government spokesman said. He told reporters the budget, to be presented to Parliament by late next month or in early June, calls for spending of 243.5 billion baht against 227.5 billion this year. The new budget is intended to make Thailand’s Gross Domestic Product grow by at least five pct during the year without compromising its conservative fiscal and monetary policy, the spokesman said.