The_Open_Door_deel1

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The 1976 Firestone Concession Agreement
The term of the 1976 Agreement does not affect the original
duration envisaged in 1926: the Firestone Concession Agreement
will end on October 1, 2025. The concession area however was
considerably reduced, and now covers 289,000 acres, which still is
about 100,000 acres more than the area the company occupied at the
time of the renegotiations (the Firestone Plantations Company in
August 1976 relinquished about 69,075 acres, and currently retains
140,449 acres, "the Production Area").
The company obtained the exclusive right in its concession area to
engage in the manufacturing of rubber products (the two actual
products of concentrated latex and dry rubber, as well as others).
The Agreement expressly prescribed that other agricultural
activities and mining operations require additional agreements.
The Government reserved the exclusive right to prospect for
minerals and other natural resources within the Production Area,
including the granting of such exclusive rights to third parties.
Nevertheless, the Firestone company has a (vague) option on the
exploitation of these natural resources. This option however, is
subject to a time limit".
As to the construction and use of support systems, infrastructure
in its broadest sense, Firestone has the right exclusively within
the Production Area to "construct, install, maintain and/or repair,
at its own expense, infrastructure", in certain cases subject to
the prior approval by the Government, and non-exclusively outside
the Production Area, exercisable only after prior approval by the
Government and subject to Liberian laws of general application.
The company, however, was not granted common carrier privileges,
in accordance with a long established policy exclusively to
reserve this area of economic' activities for Liberians. Farm roads
within the Production Area and subsidiary lines to and units
within existing support systems in accordance with applicable
Government standards are excluded from Government approval.
The new agreement subjects the Firestone Plantations Company and
its employees to all taxes, fees, import and export duties,
excises and other charges imposed by Liberian laws of general
application, thus including the payment of a rubber export tax.
The same laws are also applicable regarding stumpage fees though
rubber wood used in connection with the production of rubber was
here excluded. The company continued its exemption from
reforestation tax or any similar tax or fee, if the trees were
cut for the purpose of rubber production. The rental was increased
to $ 0.50 per acre per year for all public lands within
the Production Area. All payments to the Government must be
performed by the Firestone Plantations Company.
Lessons from the past had been the motivation for several other
new provisions. For instance it was agreed that the Firestone
Plantations Company would sell its rubber products at the best
obtainable prices, tnat the company would pay fair and equitable
prices when buying rubber from independent Liberian producers,
and that transactions between Firestone and an affiliate would be