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Pacific Islands / Pacific Forum

NZ told PACER Plus deal could be destructive for the Pacific
6-Mar-2018 Radio NZ
An analyst says New Zealand’s planned trade deal with the Pacific Island nations could be extremely damaging to their economies.
New Zealand risks ’strategic nincompoop’ status in the Pacific
1-Mar-2018 Stuff
New Zealand risks being seen as a “strategic nincompoop, at best” if it persists with attempts to bind Pacific Island countries into the New Zealand and Australian economies using mechanisms such as the PACER Plus.
PNG to sign free trade agreement
16-Feb-2018 Post Courrier
Papua New Guinea will sign the Melanesian Spearhead Group free trade agreement as soon as the leaders resolve some of the outstanding domestic trade-related issues.
PACER Plus signatories urged to examine their commitments
5-Oct-2017 Radio NZ
Pacific countries already signed up to the PACER Plus are being urged to more closely examine their commitments under the deal, including the implications for customary land.
Pacific ACP leaders intensify preparations for ACP-EU negotiations
7-Sep-2017 ACP
Heads of Pacific governments are moving forward with groundwork on negotiations for a renewed trading partnership with the European Union, as part of the larger African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States.
Joey Tau: Can the MSG bloc walk out on the PACER-Plus trade deal?
13-Jun-2017 Asia Pacific Report
PACER-Plus will have a serious impact on the ability for Solomon Islanders to determine for themselves their own development future.
PACER-Plus: Disappointment and lost opportunity
12-Jun-2017 Matangi Tonga
The PACER-Plus model of development is based on an increasingly questionable form of economics which naively imagines that national economies will adapt automatically to enhanced price signals from liberalised international markets from which ’distortions’ are removed.
Call for more time to assess Pacific trade deal
6-Jun-2017 Radio NZ
There’s been a call for more time to be given to Pacific civil society organisations and the private sector to assess the proposed regional free trade deal known as PACER Plus.
PACER-plus consolidated legal text
31-May-2017 Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, New Zealand
As released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of New Zealand
Pacific NGOs maintain opposition to PACER Plus
30-May-2017 Radio NZ
Dozens of civil society groups in the Pacific have reiterated their criticism of the PACER Plus trade deal, and said it is likely to fail the people of the Pacific.
PACER Plus signing on 14 June
23-May-2017 Matangi
The PACER Plus Trade Agreement will be signed by 14 Pacific Island countries including Australia and New Zealand on June 14 in Nuku’alofa, Tonga.
Aus, NZ trying to corner India in Oceania
9-May-2017 Sunday Guardian Live
One of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s most insightful, if low key, foreign policy initiatives was to work to deepen relations with more than a dozen island nations of Oceania.
New Pacific trade pact goes against the protectionist tide
5-May-2017 Nikkei
But 14-nation deal may be largely symbolic without Fiji and Papua New Guinea.
Guide to PACER-Plus
2-May-2017 Fiji Times
A new guide allows Pacific Islanders to better understand the impacts of the recently concluded and controversial regional Free Trade Agreement, known as PACER-Plus.
Barry Coates: PACER Plus – how the Pacific Way is being undermined
24-Apr-2017 Asia Pacific Report
There were promises that the agreement would be for the benefit of the Pacific. But it has been shaped more by the advantages to Australia and New Zealand exporters than the aspirations of the Pacific’s people.
PACER-Plus trade deal without PNG and Fiji a bad deal
20-Apr-2017 AFTINET
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.
Indonesia proposes ‘ASEAN-Pacific axis’ alternative to TPP and Chinese initiative
28-Nov-2016 Asia Pacific Report
Indonesia has proposed the setting up of a new trade bloc that could counterbalance the dominance of the United States and China.
PACER Plus not final – PNG says no, Fiji lukewarm, Vanuatu undecided
31-Aug-2016 Asia Pacific Report
The negotiations are said to offer an opportunity to help Pacific Islands Forum countries benefit from enhanced regional trade and economic integration.
Negotiations conclude on free trade agreement for Pacific
29-Aug-2016 Radio NZ
Trade ministers from Pacific Island Forum countries including Australia and New Zealand gathered to try to sign off on the negotiations which have been going on for more than 8 years.
Pacific and NZ unions left out of Pacific Labour meeting
22-Aug-2016 Radio New Zealand
A meeting on Pacific labour mobility under the PACER Plus trade deal has a glaring omission – the voices of organised labour.