Tonga to sort out their protocol for PACER Plus, say donor partners [1]
Thursday, August 31, 2017 - 15:16. Updated on Tuesday, January 30, 2018 - 15:31.
While Tonga argues over its protocol for signing the PACER Plus Trade Agreement, the other signatories and donor partners Australia and New Zealand say it is a matter for the Kingdom to sort out.
“Domestic legal approval processes of Tonga’s agreements is a matter for Tonga,” the Acting Australian High Commissioner, Rhona McPhee told Matangi Tonga.
The New Zealand’ High Commissioner, HE Ms Sarah Walsh said “Following the signing of the Agreement by ten countries on 14 June 2017 in Nuku’alofa, each signatory needs to work through its own internal requirements in order to ratify the Agreement.”
“It is not for New Zealand to comment on another country’s internal requirements.”
She said the agreement had not yet entered into force.
Australia and New Zealand are providing AUD$7.7 million for all parties of the agreement to make the necessary legal changes for implementation before the agreement is entered into force.
After the ratification of the agreement, a further AUD$25.5 million will be provided to Pacific Island countries for development assistance to take advantage of the agreement.
Eight Pacific Island countries and Australia and New Zealand signed the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations Plus (PACER Plus) in Nuku’alofa, Tonga in June.