Pacer Plus recognises the importance of deepening regional trade integration, it was claimed in Nadi yesterday.
Vanuatu-based chief trade adviser Dr Chris Noon, on giving an update on Pacer Plus consultations and negotiations, said the Forum Trade Ministers meeting in June 2009 recommended to leaders that PACER Plus negotiations should commence.
“Legal and practical questions follow from the exclusion of Fiji from PACER Plus negotiations,” Dr Noon said.
PACER Plus is the most important economic agreement the Forum Island Countries will negotiate this decade.
He was speaking during the Second Pacific Island Business Forum held at the Sofitel Resort and Spa, in Nadi yesterday.
It is affirmed that PACER Plus provides the Pacific region with a significant opportunity to develop a truly innovative trade and economic agreement that takes account of the different stages of development of each nation.
He stressed the importance of progressing PACER Plus as a means to underpin the economic security of the region through capacity-building and market-liberalisation
“National studies and consultations that are underway show that the level of preparedness varies among Forum Island Countries,” he said.
The first PACER Plus negotiation meeting in April this year was based on general discussions of priority issues.
He said Forum Trade Ministers Meeting in April:
- l Noted the fundamental importance of air and sea transport, telecommunications, and water supply infra-structure to increase trade in goods and services and agreed that these were priority negotiating issues
- l Ministers recognised the capacity constraints faced by FICs when undertaking negotiations, and the need for national consultations, recognising these consultations should be an ongoing process and should address the individual needs of countries.
- l Ministers also discussed the development of a framework that enabled those countries ready to move ahead with negotiations to progress, while allowing other countries more time to prepare.
- Forum Leaders Meeting in August 2010 observed;
- l Leaders agreed to refer the issue of participation of Fiji in the PACER Plus process to the Ministerial Contact Group (MCG) for further consideration. Leaders further agreed for the MCG, now under the chairmanship of Vanuatu as Forum Chair, to consider possible modalities for engaging Fiji in PACER Plus negotiations and to circulate their findings to leaders for consideration before the next Forum.
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