Fiji trade mission targets friendly neighbours [1]
Saturday, June 30, 2001 - 10:00. Updated on Friday, February 19, 2016 - 15:29.
From Matangi Tonga Magazine, Vol. 16, no. 1, June 2001.
Fiji is moving to expand its trade with its neighbouring island states in an effort to revive its economy after the May 19 coup d’etat.
The Chief Executive of the Fiji Islands Trade and Investment Bureau, Jesoni Vitusagavulu, said in Nuku‘alofa that they had three objectives for their trade mission to Tonga from June 5-6.
“We want to expand our trade to the islands, particularly by the Fijian garment industry. We also want to diversify our market and to minimise Fiji’s reliance on the New Zealand and the Australian market because Fiji feels that the Pacific islands are more politically sensitive to toward Fiji than their big neighbours are,” he said.
Free Trade
Thirdly, he said Fiji wanted to be an active partner in the regional free trade agreement that was currently being formulated.
Tonga and Fiji signed a Free Trade Agreement in 1998, but since then trade between the two countries has remained very much in Fiji’s favour. Tonga imports about $10 million worth of goods from Fiji annually, while exporting goods worth less than $500,000 to Fiji.
Tonga’s Minister of Labour, Commerce, Trade and Industries, Dr Masaso Paunga said that a few things had to be ironed out in the Free Trade Agreement between the two countries, because Fiji refused to allow Tongan agricultural products into Fiji. “We have the best tomatoes in the region, but Fiji refuses to buy our tomatoes, so we are exporting our tomatoes to New Zealand, which they repackage and then export to Fiji, and the Fijians pay three times the price that they would have paid if they bought it straight from us,” he said
On the future of trade in the region, Jesoni was optimistic that despite the recent political upheaval that has ravaged the Fijian economy, Fiji would soon regain its position as the trading hub of the Pacific Islands.
Fibre optic cable
With regards to the development of e-commerce he said that the launching of the Southern Cross Cable in November would enable the introduction of fibre optic cable network to Fiji, “which offers an excellence opportunity for the development of the Information Technology and e-commerce in Fiji.”
Jesoni said that after Tonga they would visit Samoa, and they planned three other missions to other Pacific island states.