From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 17, no. 3, November 2002.

The current economic reform, in preparation for when Tonga becomes a member of the World Trade Organisation, and the hype that this could pull the economy out from its state of stagnation, is the wishful thinking of many people. But the big question remains: are we ready to exploit our WTO membership, or is it going to be just like the other Free Trade Agreements we have signed with other countries, where it will enable us to import more from our partners but export less?

The truth of the matter is that we are not ready for the WTO. With the three main industries where we believe we have comparative advantages—Agriculture, Fisheries and Tourism—there are no signs of definite plans. For instance, how is Tonga going to exploit inorganic farming? In fisheries, it is becoming evident that a boom in production will only take place if Tonga allows in foreign fishing boats with foreign crews. Meanwhile, with tourism our wealth of culture and history is still waiting to be developed and presented.

There is a missing link between the people in the higher level, who set policies and sign free trading agreements, and the people who are actually turning dreams into reality— the growers, the exporters, and the creative community.

For example, take Tonga’s new produce market in Pago Pago. After it was officially opened and hailed as a break-through, Matangi Tonga tried to find out how a grower could send his produce to the market. After many telephone calls, and even calling the market itself, we had to ask the Minister of Trade, who admitted that the only way was for the grower to arrange everything himself, and take his container of talo to Pago Pago, and negotiate a rent with the caretaker.

How can a small tax allotment holder operate under such a system? He can’t. He will simply continue taking his produce to Nuku‘alofa, where there is a surplus.

Another bad example of our poor approach to overseas trade, is the Squash Industry. For years now the growers have grown with good faith that the weather will be hospitable, and that eventually, after their squash reaches Japan, they may be lucky to get a fair return for their efforts. The only thing the grower is sure of is that his loan has to be repaid to the bank.

Earlier in the year, the Ministry of Trade set a target of squash production to 15,000 tonnes estimating to bring in 60 seniti per kilo. At the beginning of the growing season Tongan exporters imported 4,000 kilos of squash seeds, enough to grow 8,000 acres and produce 40,000 tonnes.

However, at harvest time Tonga could not produce 15,000 tonnes, and the exporters and the Ministry are pointing fingers at each other over what they said was the passing of the wrong information to the Japanese, making it difficult to negotiate the price of squash.

This is, again, a clear example of how we failed to get our act together. The really disturbing factor though, was that the yield was very low, and only half of the 7,000 acres that were planted yielded any squash.

Agreements

Tonga signed free trade agreements with Fiji in 1995, then with China in 1999. Currently, together with ACP countries, Tonga is negotiating an Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union, which will include free trade access to the EU. For years Tonga has had free trade access to New Zealand and Australia under SPARTECA but on their own terms, which means if they don’t want our tomatoes, they can tell us to stop. But soon

Tonga will have free trade access to New Zealand and Australia under PICTA, and following this will have market access to the rest of the world when Tonga become a member of the WTO next year.

Acquiring the market access is a major achievement in itself, but so far it seems our participation in trading ends after the agreement is signed, then we drift into a void where we do nothing, but hope that someone may come along who knows how to utilise the access that we have established.