A Taiwan mission plans to buy 410,000 bales (500 lbs/bale) of U.S. Cotton worth about 110 mln U.S. Dlrs when it visits several U.S. States early next month, a spokesman for the Taiwan Spinners Association told Reuters. He said a similar mission last year bought 700,000 bales worth 77 mln dlrs. He said the mission was buying less U.S. Cotton because the price is some 15 pct higher than that of cotton from Pakistan and India.

The Soviet Union is attending an Asian Development Bank (ADB) annual general meeting for the first time, but has not decided whether to apply for membership, a senior Soviet State Bank official said. “No specific plans exist for applying for membership,” Yurij Ponomarev, international managing director of the State Bank, told Reuters. “It’s too early to draw up any plans.” The USSR is attending the 20th meeting as an observer.

A top United Arab Emirates (UAE) banker said a new law would be introduced soon obliging courts to recognise interest rates contracted between bank and borrower. Sheikh Suroor bin Sultan al-Dhahiri, Chairman of Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, told reporters after the shareholders’ meeting last night the decree would make interest in debt cases payable at the contracted rate up to the day a case is filed in court. Subsequently, interest would be charged at a maximum nine pct for personal and 12 pct for corporate loans, he said.

A visiting U.S. Mint official told reporters that American Eagle gold coins took the largest share of the world bullion coin market in 1986 despite the fact sales only began in October last year. She said the U.S. Coins accounted for 37 pct of the world market share, against 31.9 pct for Canadian coins and 18.6 pct for South African. She gave no sales volume figures for 1986. Sales of the U.

Japan should look out for possible effects of the yen’s recent sharp rise on Japan’s economy as growth remains slow, the government’s Economic Planning Agency said in a monthly report submitted to cabinet ministers. EPA officials told reporters the underlying trend of the economy is firm but growth is slow due to sluggish exports. Customs-cleared exports by volume fell 4.9 pct month-on-month in February after a 2.8 pct fall in March.

The 22nd annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank will be held in Peking in 1989, a senior bank official told Reuters. China, which was admitted as the bank’s 47th member in March 1986, will take a place on the ADB board at the current meeting here, he said. Peking’s representatives have been attending board meetings over the past year as observers with no voting rights, he added. He said China, the bank’s third-largest shareholder after Japan and the United States, will take the seat on the 12-member board currently occupied by a grouping of Sri Lanka, Vietnam, the Maldives, Laos and Afghanistan.

Spain has joined the group of European Community countries opposed to the proposed tax on marine and vegetable oils and fats, diplomatic sources said. They said the Spanish position was clarified at a joint meeting here of EC finance and agriculture ministers to discuss the budgetary situation surrounding this year’s EC farm price negotiations. Previously, West Germany, Britain, Portugal and Denmark have declared themselves against the tax with Spain’s position unclear, the sources said.

The Bundesbank intervened in the open market to buy dollars against yen, dealers said. They were responding to enquiries immediately after news the Swiss National Bank said it joined concerted intervention to sell yen for dollars. The Bundesbank had no immediate comment on the reports. But dealers said the German central bank came into the market just after 1300 GMT when the dollar was trading around 141.90 yen to buy small amounts of the U.

Central bank governors from Spain, Latin America and the Caribbean will meet here this week at two separate conmferences to discuss finance and monetary problems, the Central Bank of Barbados said. The 24th session of central bank governors of the american continent opens today for two days. Central bank governors of Latin America and Spain will hold a separate conference from april 29-30. Representatives of the Inter American Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other international financial organizations will attend both conferences.

The U.S. corn and soybean crops are in mostly good condition and have not suffered any yield deterioration from recent hot, dry weather, Agriculture Department and private weather and crop analysts said. “I don’t see any reduction in yield potential yet,” Norton Strommen, chief meteorologist at USDA told Reuters. “The (corn and soybean) crop is actually in mostly good condition and is progressing ahead of normal, which is good,” he said.