The Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG) says ongoing negotiations for the controversial free trade agreement known as PACER-Plus are creating an unbalanced agreement against the interests of the Pacific Islands.

“Australia and New Zealand are again using PACER-Plus to get what they want out of the Pacific, this despite the constant rhetoric from the region's biggest neighbours that this is a development agreement for the Pacific,” commented PANG's Trade Justice Campaigner Adam Wolfenden.

“The Pacific Island Countries have long argued that Labour Mobility and Development Assistance are the two areas of possible benefit to them under PACER-Plus and yet those are the areas that Australia and New Zealand are showing practically no flexibility on,” added Mr Wolfenden.

Documents sighted by PANG detail how Pacific Island Countries (PICs) are having to compromise on their aims from the Agreement in these two chapters in order to see the talks progress.

The statement by the Solomon Islands, as Chair of the Negotiating Group on Labour Mobility, states that “We are nowhere near achieving an agreement on the core demands of the PICs....While we acknowledge the efforts of New Zealand to bridge the gaps in the negotiating positions of the Parties, we believe that the proposed Arrangement falls far short of our expectations in many respects.

However, in the spirit of compromise and goodwill and the need to make rapid progress in these negotiations, the PICs are prepared to consider it as a basis for our negotiations. We would, however, be proposing several amendments.”

Further, the Tongan statement as Chair of the Negotiating Group on Development Assistance states that “We have managed to demonstrate considerable flexibility to overcome some of the initial divergences we held at the inception of these negotiations.... In the spirit of compromise, we have been able to overcome that fundamental difference, without which we would not be seeking to elaborate on the structure of the “Development Assistance” component.”

Mr Wolfenden stated “That some of the smallest nations in the world are the ones who are shouldering the flexibility in these negotiations is typical of what we have come to expect in relationships with our biggest neighbours in the region. The power dynamics in the PACER-Plus negotiations means that Pacific Island Countries development gets sacrificed to demonstrate our good faith. It is the Island Countries who continue to negotiate in good faith”.

“The context of a Free Trade Agreement means that PACER-Plus will never be able to accommodate the Pacific's interest. Australia and New Zealand aren't worried about the Pacific's development they're worried that whatever they concede to the Pacific Islands they'll have to give to other countries they are negotiating FTAs with,” added Mr Wolfenden.

The Statement on Development Assistance continues “It is pleasing to note that there is agreement on the importance of providing us support not only for the implementation of commitments arising from PACER Plus, but also broader trade-related development assistance to enable us take advantage of and utilise the opportunities arising from the PACER Plus framework. We believe this has to be spelt out clearly in the legal text. In that regard, the language provided recently by New Zealand did not adequately capture this overarching objective. Likewise, both Australia and New Zealand are yet to spell out clearly how they intend to deliver broader trade-related assistance to the PICs.”

“A Free Trade Agreement, like PACER-Plus, is not needed for any of the benefits the PICs are after in these negotiations. If Australia and New Zealand were truly interested in supporting Pacific Island economic self-determination it would start by dumping PACER-Plus and having a genuine dialogue about these issues,” concluded Mr Wolfenden.