Pacific Islands / Pacific Forum
A new report says Pacific Island countries should walk away from the proposed PACER Plus free trade agreement, suggesting it puts Australia and New Zealand’s interests ahead of the Pacific.
The signing of a Pacific free trade deal in June has been thrown into doubt with the largest island nation Papua New Guinea saying it favours Australia and will damage local industries.
PACER-Plus is shaping up as an agreement that won’t fit into the Pacific reality, will have weak protections for Pacific businesses and undermines the ability of governments to enact policies to support and nurture vital Pacific industries.
PACER-Plus is shaping up as an agreement that won’t fit into the Pacific reality, will have weak protections for Pacific businesses and undermines the ability of governments to enact policies to support and nurture vital Pacific industries.
New brief says Regional trade agreement bad for business.
A political battle is brewing in the Pacific over tuna as rising competition from Chinese vessels sours long-standing fishing arrangements between the US and Pacific island nations.
Explore all options is the instructions Pacific leaders have told officials who are negotiating an economic partnership agreement with the European Union.
Peru is making progress in implementing the agenda of new trade agreements
The Ministers highlighted that the interim EPA in its current form is not the preferable option for most parties as it has no development benefits
The ACP Parliamentary Assembly called for a joint Pacific European Commission Ministerial meeting to address the remaining contentious issues and to work constructively to conclude a development friendly comprehensive EPA by December 31, 2015.
The organisation of African, Carribean and Pacific countries says the European Union’s decision to defer negotiations for an Economic Partnership Agreement with the Pacific states is unacceptable.
Fourteen Pacific Island Forum countries are currently locked in negotiations with their two largest economic neighbours, Australia and New Zealand, to forge a new regional free trade agreement called ‘PACER Plus’, which supporters believe will boost economic growth in the region.
The European Union’s ambassador to the Pacific says the EU is still committed to trade relations with the Pacific, despite stalled negotiations for an Economic Partnership Agreement.
The European Union have proposed a 3 year pause in negotiations on the Economic Partnership Agreement, according to Fiji media.
In a surprise move this week, the European Union has moved to suspend negotiations for a new economic partnership agreement (EPA) with the islands of the Pacific, ISLANDS BUSINESS has been told.
The Solomon Islands government says the European Union has suspended negotiations on the Economic Partnership Agreement between 14 Pacific Island Countries and the EU - 9 years after its EPA was launched in September, 2004.
In July 2013, Pacific Island Country Trade Ministers called on the Pacific Forum Secretariat to give priority to trade and economic cooperation discussions with the United States.
For Gary Juffa — the Governor of Papua New Guinea’s Oro province and one of the region’s most outspoken critics of free trade — neoliberalism is a hard pill to swallow.
Plans for a comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement are in jeopardy after the Pacific Island nations accused Europe of failing to respond to their requests and threatened to pull-out if Europe is unable to meet their deadline of the end of this year.
When Pacific trade negotiators sit down later this month with their European Commission counterparts to carve out the finer details of their Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), the pressure points would be fishery, market access and services.
bilaterals.org team, Jan 2021