The United States and Japan are waging a behind the scenes battle at this week’s Asian Development Bank meeting over Tokyo’s attempts to win a greater say in the organization, U.S. And Japanese delegates said. Washington is opposing the Japanese efforts because it would mean the end of the long-standing parity between the two nations in the Bank, U.S. Officials said. Right now, the two countries’ voting shares are about equal, Japan having 12.

Indonesia will try to increase sugar output in calendar 1988 to 2.4 mln tonnes from an expected 2.2 mln in 1987, Agriculture Minister Achmad Affandi said. He told reporters after meeting President Suharto the gains will come from increasing average production to 10 tonnes per hectare from the previous 6.2 tonnes. He said Indonesia is aiming to pass the United States to become the world’s fourth largest producer compared with its current seventh position.

Demand for natural gas has failed to grow in proportion to the decline in oil deliveries because of concerns over unresolved regulatory issues in the United States, said industry analysts and gas utility company sources. “Natural gas is not free to compete,” said Larry Makovich, director of utilities service at Data Resources Inc, “problems on pipeline open access and take-or-pay liabilities still weigh heavily on end-users’ decision to switch to natural gas.

Japan’s 1987 car export restraint to the European Community (EC) is not enough, EC external trade chief Willy de Clercq said. There are also strong signs Japanese exporters are diverting cars to the EC after the dollar’s fall against the yen made their U.S. market unprofitable, he told reporters after meeting U.S., Japanese, and Canadian trade ministers. The EC has agreed that if it detects an abnormal diversion in Japanese exports from the U.

Shoppers who buy Haagen-Daas ice cream, Dijon mustard or Tuborg beer on their weekly trip to the supermarket are soon to be the target of a promotional blitz for national-brand “gourmet” coffees. General Foods, the largest U.S. coffee roaster, and A and P, which shares the third place in the U.S. market, are the only two national brand roasters so far to introduce the higher-quality coffees into selected supermarkets. But industry insiders believe there is substantial growth potential in upscale coffee, despite years of flat sales in regular ground roast types.

Mexico’s policies for silver production and sales have not changed despite Peru’s decision last week to freeze its silver sales, government mining and central bank officials said. The officials also expressed doubt that such a policy change was in the works. Mexico is the world’s leading silver producer and had an output of about 73.9 mln troy ounces last year, according to preliminary government figures. Peru, the world’s second leading silver producer, last week suspended sales of the precious metal in what authorities in Lima said was an effort to protect its price in an unstable market.

Coffee prices look set to continue sliding in the near term, given the lack of progress towards a new International Coffee Organization (ICO) export quota accord, according to coffee traders and analysts. Robusta coffee futures dipped sharply to 4-1/2 year lows yesterday at 1,220 stg per tonne, basis the May position, when the lack of new debate on quotas at ICO talks here confirmed expectations that efforts to restore quotas would not be revived at this stage, they said.

Four trade ministers ended a weekend meeting with a frank confession that their governments are losing credibility in world financial markets and will not regain it until they back their promises over trade and currencies with action. “Until today we have anounced policies, but when it came to action required it was done in a way that satisfied nobody,” Japanese Trade Minister Hajime Tamura told a news conference. “From now on, if a government comes up with a certain policy, it must be followed by action,” he said following two days of informal talks with the trade ministers of the United States, the European Community and Canada in central Japan.

European Community (EC) agriculture ministers ended a three-day meeting in Luxembourg still deeply divided over plans by the EC Commission to curb the cost of the EC’s farm policy through sharp cuts in farm returns. Their chairman, Belgium’s Paul de Keersmaeker, told a news conference after the meeting he would work on a paper setting out possible compromise solutions in the next two weeks, with the hope that the ministers can get down to detailed negotiations at a meeting in Brussels on May 18.

The Group of Seven industrialised countries will make use of next week’s International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington to evaluate the Paris accord on currency stabilisation, U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson told reporters. “On Tuesday I shall be going to Washington for meetings of the (IMF) Interim Committee and Development Committee, and we shall of course be having a meeting of the G-7,” Lawson said. “And on the G-7, although there is no formal agenda, I would imagine that the first thing we do would be to review how the Paris accord has gone since it was agreed in February.