The latest round of negotiations on the regional trade agreement PACER Plus are underway in Samoa with a focus on labour mobility, development assistance and trade in goods.
Transcript
The latest round of negotiations on the regional trade agreement PACER Plus are underway in Samoa with a focus on labour mobility, development assistance and trade in goods.
But not everyone thinks PACER Plus is the best way forward for trade in the Pacific.
Koroi Hawkins has more:
Civil Society organisations in the Pacific are calling for a suspension to PACER PLUS negotiations and the immediate release of all negotiation texts to the public. The Pacific Network on Globalisation says it believes the so called "development agreement" is forcing Pacific island countries to shoulder the burden of legal commitments in the talks while Australia and New Zealand offer voluntary commitments. Globalisation Network campaigner Adam Wolfenden who is in Apia this week says civil society organisations around the region are against the deal which they see as unnecessary and out of touch with the economic context of many Pacific island nations.
ADAM WOLFENDEN: So we are calling for an immediate suspension of negotiations, release of the text and the conducting of you know human rights impact assessments on those texts. So we have a sense of what this is fully going to mean. Not just the economic rhetoric that is being pushed by governments and the Office of the Chief Trade Advisor.
But the Pacific's Chief Trade Advisor Edwini Kessie is adamant the agreement is both relevant and beneficial for the region. Dr Kessie says the PACER Plus trade talks have been re-energised and should be concluded by September next year. He says the advance comes with Australia last month committing to lift the cap on its seasonal employment scheme, and to extend it to the entire agriculture sector and to the tourism sector in some areas. He says Australia has also extended the labour scheme to include all 14 island countries negotiating the PACER Plus deal.
EDWINI KESSIE: That has re-energised negotiations. New Zealand has also increased the cap and it is also looking at the possibility of making further improvements to the RSE. The two countries have also agreed to the forum island countries to provide them with assistance to address supply-side constraints which have prevented them from taking advantage of trade agreements.
But unions in New Zealand say they are strongly opposing any expansion of the Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme. The policy director of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, Bill Rosenberg says while the RSE scheme has fulfilled its aim to provide better employment and training for Pacific Islanders, it has failed to make the jobs it fills more attractive to New Zealanders and is threatening to make Pacific workers a dominant source of employees in the industry.
BILL ROSENBERG: There have been suggestions from the PACER Plus nations that the RSE scheme or something like it be expanded into other industries. We would be very concerned at that because we think that the problems that would arise there would be similar to or even more concerning than what has happened in the RSE scheme.
Ironically labour mobility will not even feature in PACER Plus but is being discussed as a parallel arrangement to the deal. The Pacific Network on Globalisation's Adam Wolfenden says this anomaly proves that no matter what the outcome, Pacific island nations are being held hostage to PACER Plus.
ADAM WOLFENDEN: The politics of PACER Plus is that it is very hard for these island nations to not be at the table, you know to walk away from something that there is obviously a mandate but also when you look at the two biggest aid donors sitting across the table from them you know there are repercussions.
Negotiations on Pacer Plus in Samoa this week will conclude on Friday with the next round to be held in Melbourne in October.
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