The_Open_Door_deel1

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with the 7iresione Plantation Company shall be. reduced,
and the rent shall Le raised from 6 cents to about 50
cents per acre." (90).
However, not to define the 1976 Firestone Concession Agreement as
a big leap forward would not be fair. This agreement with the
Firestone Tire & Rubber Company is much more impressive because of
its seriousness than was the 1926 Planting Agreement, and it was
much better prepared by the Government. As just indicated, certain
provisions or characteristics, however, seem to indicate that it
is hard to beat a multinational which can afford to buy expertise
wherever it is available, and use or create loopholes where it
needs them. Countries such as Liberia seem to be "bound to lose".
What happened after the conclusion of the 1976 Firestone
Concession Agreement may illustrate this.
The Government's relatively firm stand during the discussions with
Firestone was partly motivated by its plans to use the resulting
agreement as a "model agreement" during the ensuing renegotiations
of existing agricultural concessions and/or the discussion of new
ones, and partly - of course - by historical reasons and the
personal feelings of some Government officials. A weak performance
would consequently not only result in a loss of future revenues
and advantages but also in a loss of bargaining power and- position.
Indeed, after the conclusion of the Firestone Concession
Agreement the Government proceeded with the renegotiation of the
agreements with some of the older concessionaires, notably The
Liberia Company and the Liberian Agricultural Company (the
exclusion of the African Fruit Company is not without political
significance, implicating high ranking Government officials
including the President of Liberia and the Minister of Finance),
It seems, however, that after the personal interference of
President William Tolbert both the renegotiations and the
evaluation of the benefits of foreign concessions were
discontinued in early 1978. This decision anticipated the
conclusions and recommendations of the Pa,rker-Commission,
installed some months earlier. The motivation for this
Presidential decision was the unfavourable investment climate,
i.e. the continued absence of new Investments^
The foreign investors, particulary in the rubber sector but also
in the mining sector, succeeded in convincing prominent
Government officials that they could not afford to accept new
terms of their agreements, e.g. the same as Firestone's. In the
light of the financial crisis which Liberia in the early 1980's
is to experience very likely it seems justified to reconsider
these decisions (see also Chapters 10 and 14).