The benefits, challenges and ways forward for PACER Plus
PACER Plus continued to dominate the regional trade agenda in 2009, with Pacific Island Forum leaders agreeing, at their August meeting in Cairns, to commence negotiations.
We teamed up with the Institute for International Trade in Australia together with the University of the South Pacific in Fiji to undertake an initial analysis on the potential implications of a comprehensive PACER Plus agreement.
Subsequently PiPP undertook a range of national studies for the governments of Cook Islands Federated States of Micronesia, Samoa and Vanuatu to provide a detailed impact assessments of development needs and constraints in relation to PACER Plus.
PiPP has also published a range of Discussion Papers on PACER Plus which seeks to broaden thinking on the subject beyond a traditional free trade agreement. If PACER Plus remains focused solely as a traditional free trade agreement it will fail. Pacific leaders (in government, business and civil society) need to embrace the opportunity to consider a broader agreement on closer economic relations between the parties as a means to achieve national and regional development aims. A closer economic agreement in the Pacific needs to consider a whole range of issues, such as improving living conditions, consumer protection, business development, social inclusion, infrastructure, the environment, migration and labour mobility. Pacific leaders have demonstrated a long-standing commitment to regional integration, and PACER Plus presents an opportunity to build on the deep social, cultural and commercial linkages between the Pacific islands, Australia and New Zealand. But we will not get there unless we change the language of the debate. Just releasing an avalanche of technical studies is not enough. Framing the discussion in trade jargon excludes most people, and prevents a more thorough appraisal of the options for mutually beneficial integration.
