ABSTRACT
However, synthetic rubber represents a negligible proportion of world trade in rubber and it is natural rubber for which international agreements and cartels have operated and which is a core commodity under UNCTAD's Integrated Programme. Demand for rubber is considered to be quite insensitive to price changes in the short-term although sensitive to changes in economic activity. However, production costs far exceeded those for natural rubber and it was not until the Second World War that insecure Far Eastern supplies stimulated the large-scale development of synthetic rubber in the US under government tutelage. In 1942, following a US Government report, this programme was expanded and led to the discovery of a range of monomers suitable for the commercial production of a variety of general and special purpose synthetic rubbers, plastics and fibres.
