Trade Integration Important For Pacific Region

Trade Integration Important For Pacific Region

Members of the Pacific Islands Forum have long recognized the importance of deepening regional trade integration to the livelihood of people in the Pacific region.

Speaking at the Forum Trade Officials Meeting which ended in Pohnpei, in the Federated States of Micronesia today, Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum, Tuiloma Neroni Slade said: “Forum members have long recognised the importance of deepening regional trade integration as a means to create jobs, enhance private sector growth, raise standards of living and advance the region’s sustainable economic development.”

“The steadily increasing involvement of Members in international trade relations over the past years has reflected political recognition of the importance of trade, regional economic integration and progressive and appropriate participation in the global economy to their economies andr communities,” said Mr Slade.

Regional mandates provided by Forum Leaders through the adoption of the Pacific Plan guide the region’s work in moving ahead with regional economic integration.

“Deepening regional integration remains fundamental in the Leaders Vision of the Pacific and its achievement depends on the support of all Member Countries. And Leaders have declared the PACER Plus process as part of the key progression towards regional integration,” said Mr Slade.

Forum Trade Ministers have stressed the importance of PACER Plus as a means to underpin the economic security of the region, especially through capacity building and market liberalisation. Ministers have reflected their intention to bolster the capacity of all Forum Island Countries to take advantage of trade opportunities to help their economies grow and become more resilient to shocks such as the current global economic crisis.

“However,” Mr Slade said, “the actual ability of Forum Island Countries to benefit from regional integration and participation in the global economy has been tempered by a range of factors.”

“Unlike larger and more sophisticated economies which have elaborated detailed trade policies over many years and have recourse to large pools of skilled, experienced experts to negotiate and pursue their international trading interests, such is not the case in the Forum Island Countries. It is in light of such limitations and experiences to date that FICs recognise the importance of establishing appropriate trade policy frameworks. Such frameworks will better enable Member Countries to make policy decisions on key trade-related issues such as trading arrangements with their major trading partners. Those frameworks will necessarily be formulated in consultation with key national stakeholders, both from the private sector and civil society.”

Secretary General Slade told the Forum Trade Officials meeting that good progress has been made in the last decade thanks to trade capacity building and trade policy formulation initiatives in the Forum Island Countries, which has been facilitated with the assistance of development partners, including Australia and New Zealand.

Mr Slade thanked the Forum Trade Officials and the Government of the Federated States of Micronesia for their contributions to the meeting.

The Forum Trade Officials met ahead of the Forum Trade Ministers’ meeting which will be held from 29 – 30 April in Pohnpei, in the Federated States of Micronesia.

ENDS.

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