PACER Plus

The trade arrangement among Pacific nations is due to be signed in June after negotiations were completed last week.

Edwini Kessie said the New Zealand Green Party MP Barry Coates was wrong to claim there is a lack of access.

He said the issue was the difficulty Pacific Island countries often have in establishing rigorous bio-security systems, but under the deal New Zealand and Australia were committed to help the smaller nations achieve this.

"So the statement that they don't have access to Australia for tropical fruits is not accurate," Dr Kessie said.

The veteran of the aid and development sector is critical of the PACER PLUS agreement involving New Zealand and Australia and 12 island countries that is set to be signed in June.

But missing from it are the two biggest economies among the island nations, Papua New Guinea and Fiji.

While PACER is being touted by Australia and New Zealand as a great deal for the island countries, Mr Coates said they get few benefits.

The MP said the deal also goes against the emphasis placed on regionalism by Australia and New Zealand.

Barry Coates said most of the gains would go to New Zealand and Australia.

He said market access was still denied for many fruits and vegetables, particularly into Australia, there was no long-term commitment on visas for seasonal labourers, and only a fraction of the aid needed for the island countries to build their exporting capacity.

Mr Coates, who had previously worked in the aid and development sector as head of OXFAM in New Zealand, said the PACER deal, from when it was first mooted 16 years ago, was always meant to be for the people of the island countries.

The deal was finalised in Brisbane last Thursday, and may be formally signed on June in Tonga.

Dr Ranald said the two largest economies, Papua New Guinea and Fiji, have both refused to endorse the final text, saying it did not recognise their need to develop their infant industries. Without them, PACER-Plus has failed as a regional agreement.

“PNG and Fiji’s rejection shows that the agreement is heavily skewed towards the interests of Australia and New Zealand - despite early rhetoric that the agreement was about development needs,” said Dr Ranald.

“New Zealand and Australia are being accused of pushing a trade deal to advance their own commercial interests at the expense of Pacific Islands’ national interests,” Green Party trade spokesperson Barry Coates said.
 
“The fact that the Pacific’s two biggest economies, Fiji and Papua New Guinea, have opted out is a warning sign that Australia and New Zealand have demanded too many concessions. Their absence from PACER Plus will undermine the existing Pacific Island Countries Trade Agreement (PICTA) and Pacific regionalism.
 

After more than six years of negotiations 12 Pacific Island Forum countries are expected to sign Pacer Plus this month..

Initially, the countries had pushed for legally binding arrangements on labour mobility but Australia and New Zealand convinced them otherwise, supposedly to protect the schemes' exclusivity to Pacific countries.

But the Solomon Islands foreign minister Milner Tozaka said it was still one of the main reasons they wanted to sign on.

Touted as a "trade and economic integration" agreement by Australia and New Zealand negotiations on PACER Plus have been going since 2009.

Its proponents say it aims to create jobs, raise standards of living and encourage sustainable economic development in the Pacific region.

But those campaigning against it say it is unnecessarily restrictive and does not achieve anything that could not be achieved bilaterally.

PACER-Plus promises a trade and economic integration deal between the Pacific island countries and Australia and New Zealand.

It has been under negotiation for eight years.

The Pacific Network Against Globalisation's campaigner, Adam Wolfenden, said the collapse of the TPP presented Australia and New Zealand with a chance to reframe PACER Plus.

John Salong wanpla bisnisman long Vanuatu i mekim deespla toktok tede bihaenim wanpla miting em  Department blong  External Trade,na Office blong Chief Trade Advisor (OCTA) ibin holim  long Port Vila long Trinde  last wik  we oli bin lukluk long Pacer-Plus.

Oli bin statim ol toktok blong kamapim despla tok oraet blong PACER Plus long 2009, tasol ikam inap nau oli no kamapim iet wanpla tok oraet.

RNZ reports Pala Molisa, who is ni-Vanuatuan, is a lecturer at the Victoria University of Wellington's School of Accounting and Commercial Law.

He said by choosing to conduct trade negotiations behind closed doors and refusing to release trade documents to the public, Pacific leaders have shown a lack of faith in democracy and a lack of respect for the public.

Mr Molisa said the leaders' actions were also at odds with their claims that PACER-Plus will be good for the Pacific.