Transcript
EDWINI KESSIE:Clearly the Pacific Island Countries if their objectives have not been met they would not have concluded the negotiations. In the area of labour mobility it is true that the parties agreed on an arrangement but I think we can be sure that Australia and New Zealand will not reneg on that and I think that Australia and New Zealand will also provide them with the development assistance that they will need to restructure there economies.
DON WISEMAN: Yes but they haven't got access to Australia for key tropical fruits have they?
EK: I don't think that is an accurate statement. Australia and New Zealand gave duty free quota free access for all products. And that is currently the situation under SPARTECA. The problem is that Australia and New Zealand maintain strict quarantine requirements and Pacific Islands countries exporters sometimes find it difficult to meet those standards, Under PACER Plus Australia and New Zealand have undertaken to help the countries to meet their quarantine requirements. So the statement that they don't have access to Australia for tropical fruits is not accurate. I mean I think it should be said in the context that they cannot meet the applicable bio-security requirements. And in PACER Plus Australia and New Zealand have undertaken to assist the countries to meet those standards,
DW: Well they are providing some money, they are not providing a lot of money in terms of setting up the equipment that is necessary to ensure that the fruit meet the exacting standards that Australia has set, In a lot of ways it is another form of keeping it out isn't it?
EK: Lets hope that, I mean I cannot speak for Australia or New Zealand but I do sincerely hope that Australia and New Zealand will live up to what they have promised and that they would assist the countries. If they do then I think the surplus will make a real difference to the Pacific Island countries. Australia and New Zealand have undertaken that they would spend 20 percent of their official development assistance on aid for trade, And so hopefully part of this money can be used to assist the Pacific Island countries to meet the applicable standards in Australia and New Zealand. Because obviously if we do not see an increase in the trade of the Pacific then PACER Plus would not achieve its basic of objectives of helping or trying to increase the participation of the Pacific Island countries in international trade.
DW: Lets go ten years down the line, how do you think it would look in terms of trading across the Pacific? New Zealand and Australia - already there is a huge imbalance. What do you think this picture is going to be like in ten years time?
EK: Well I think it would be very difficult to - I don't have a crystal ball, but I think [it] very much depends, like I said, if Australia and New Zealand actually deliver on what they have promised, we will be looking at somewhere around 300 million dollars a year to help the countries with aid for trade initiatives. If Australia and New Zealand were to deliver on that then I think there would be a substantive difference in terms of the participation of the Pacific Islands countries. So it very much depends on the implementation of the agreement. Concluding the agreement is one thing but implementing the agreement is one thing. And we do hope that Australia and New Zealand would actually help the countries and the countries themselves would also adopt the right policies at the domestic level so as to enable them to take advantage of the trade agreement. But I should think that in ten years we should see much more increased trade and there would be increased investment into the Pacific Island countries and they would be able to use trade as an engine of economic growth and of sustainable development,
DW: Now you have worked and are working with the World Trade Organisation. And a lot of the ideas that are incorporated into this PACER Plus are to suit it, aren't they? They fit with what the WTO is requiring around the world. Is that necessary for all of these Pacific Island countries, when a lot of them don't yet belong to the WTO, and a lot of them may never belong to the WTO?
EK: It is true that the agreement would have to comply with WTO rules but certainly PACER Plus went beyond the WTO. For example WTO does not have rules on investment, WTO does not have rules on regional labour mobility like we do. Also we do have a chapter on development assistance which the WTO agreement doesn't have. So PACER Plus actually goes beyond the WTO but fundamentally being a free-trade agreement the agreement has to comply with WTO rules in terms of the liberalisation which is undertaken by the parties. So it is more WTO Plus to the extent that the agreement covers areas that WTO currently doesn't have the disciplines and I must also underscore that WTO rules have been tested and it has been proven that countries which are open to trade and investment overall have done better than countries with closed economies. And so notwithstanding the fact that eight of our countries are not WTO members we have Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu as WTO members but most of the countries which are not even WTO members they are generally open. Most of the Pacific Island countries are generally open to trade and investment,
DW: You mention Fiji and PNG and of course they are not in the deal. Do you think they will eventually be there?
EK: It is very hard, I mean in the case of Fiji it is very unfortunate because the Minister of Trade of Fiji only wrote to us two days before the meeting, asking for a postponement, They had known about the meeting for a long time they didn't do anything and two days before we get a letter that oh if you could postpone. When travel arrangements had already been finalised. So nobody kept out Fiji but they have since come out to say that their intention was not to withdraw. So hopefully they would be able to accede to the agreement if that is the wish of the government. Papua New Guinea we hope, that maybe with time, they would realise that the agreement actually has many flexibilities for developing countries such as Papua New Guinea that will make them want to sign because obviously if we have an agreement which comprises Fiji and PNG then the whole region would be better off and so hopefully I do hope that maybe those two countries will maybe come on board with time.
