The executive director of Oxfam New Zealand, Barry Coates, says hard-nosed trade negotiation tactics by the European Union are putting future Pacific integration at risk.
Mr Coates says leaked correspondence between the European trade commissioner, Peter Mandelson, and the Cook Islands Foreign Minister, Wilkie Rasmussen, reveals the extent to which the trade negotiations have divided Pacific nations.
He says Papua New Guinea and Fiji broke with the rest of the Pacific states and signed up to economic trade agreements with the EU under threat of losing vital preferential access to the European market.
"The European Union has not respected the Pacific, has not respected Pacific views and has used trade negotiations to divide."
Barry Coates, executive director of Oxfam New Zealand.
