Liberia, BFS sign amended rubber concession agreement

ire Business staff report

Monrovia, Liberia -- Bridgestone/Firestone (BFS) and the government of Liberia have signed an amended rubber concession agreement which will run until 2041, the tyre maker has announced.

BFS had renegotiated the agreement in 2005, but Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf asked for new negotiations after she took office in January 2006.

According to BFS, the company has agreed to increase the income tax it pays to the Liberian government to 30 percent, up from 25; to finish construction of a rubber wood factory that will create at least 500 new jobs; to continue the replanting of rubber trees and undertake new social and educational projects; and to follow new transfer pricing provisions for dry rubber and latex based on international indices. The new agreement will increase the Liberian government's revenues by nearly $2.5 million, according to a BFS press release.

BFS has operated a 240-square-mile (62 000 ha) rubber plantation near Harbel, Liberia, since Harvey Firestone signed the original agreement in 1926. Today, the tyre maker said, it employs nearly 7000 in Liberia and provides schools for more than 15 000 children in 23 plantation schools.

From Tire Business (A Crain publication)

Press release from BFS