Australia may be going cold on the proposed PACER Plus trade agreement with the Pacific Islands
Australia’s Trade Policy Statement launched by Trade Minister, Craig Emerson, today signals a change of focus for Australia’s trade negotiations and sets out a list of trade priorities, which does not include PACER plus.
Presenter: Jemima Garrett, Pacific Economic and Business reporter
Speaker: Patricia Ranald, Convenor of Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network
RANALD: The most interesting thing for PACER Plus is it is not mentioned in the document, the government is actually prioritising its regional and bilateral trade agreements, and PACER Plus is not on the list of priorities.
GARRETT: Now there is quite a long list of priorities, what does appear on the list?
RANALD: Well the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement, which is an agreement being negotiated between the US, New Zealand, Australia and six other countries in the Asia Pacific is there, but not PACER Plus. And then there are a series of bilateral agreements with South Korea, Japan, China, Indonesia, etc.
GARRETT: So where does this leave PACER Plus exactly?
RANALD: Well as we understand it from talking to the government, the PACER Plus negotiations are under review. We have put to the government in the past that PACER Plus is really not about trade, and in fact previous government ministers have said in the past that Australia doesn’t expect to get trade benefits from PACER Plus. That it’s really about development. And we have said to the government well if it’s about development it shouldn’t be a trade agreement, it should be about development relationships or other relationships. You don’t have to force that into a trade agreement framework. So we hope that the review includes some attention being paid to that argument.
