Papua New Guinea's national planning minister says he has told New Zealand's government that PNG would like a bilateral trade agreement.
Papua New Guinea Minister of National Planning, Richard Maru, in Wellington, 1 May 2018. Photo: RNZ / Johnny Blades
Richard Maru, who is in New Zealand this week, said any trade deal has to be on a win-win basis and not like the PACER-Plus regional trade deal which PNG opposes.
He said there were many PNG products which the country had struggled to get into Australia and New Zealand markets, partly because of biosecurity standards.
Mr Maru said he discussed trade with New Zealand's foreign minister Winston Peters yesterday.
Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller
"We would be keen to talk about a bilateral trade agreement with New Zealand which is on a win-win basis. And that will be the same message I would be conveying to the Australians," Mr Maru said.
" We want to trade, we want to open up the market, provided it's on a win-win basis. we've done the analysis and we've seen that if we went through with PACER Plus we are going to lose big time as an economy, which we can hardly do right now."
Richard Maru said PNG was working to bring its biosecurity systems in line with New Zealand's.
Photo: RNZI / JOHNNY BLADES
But he conceded he remained unsure if there was genuine interest among New Zealand and Australia in helping PNG boost trade.
"That's always the challenge for us," he explained. "When you look at it the other way, for example in New Zealand's case the trade is 10 to 1 in New Zealand's favour.
"If they want to trade with us, it has to be on a mutually acceptable basis, where we are basically trading the same volume of goods as they're trading. And for now, there's no incentive to do so," Richard Maru said.
