ISDS Case Map
PACER | PACER Plus
Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations
This is the leaked draft chapter on Investment text from the PACER Plus Intersessional meeting in Auckland, 26-28 November 2013.
The Pacific Network on Globalisation have launched their campaign against the regional free trade agreement, known as PACER-Plus.
Pacific civil society organisations, including gender groups, environmental groups and regional non-government groups have called for the immediate suspension of the regional trade negotiations, known as PACER-Plus, and the release of the secret texts under negotiations.
Independent Australian organisations, the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network and AID/WATCH, have voiced serious concerns about the PACER-Plus Free Trade Agreement currently being negotiated between Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Island Countries.
In the middle of July, Pacific Island Trade Ministers will meet in Samoa with their Australian and New Zealand counterparts to discuss whether or not to expand the negotiations of PACER-Plus to include services and investment, reports the Pacific Network on Globalisation.
Papua New Guinea’s trade Minister, Richard Maru, recently set a cat amongst the pigeons by saying that PNG was not interested in the regional trade negotiations known as PACER-Plus. “We can’t export our taro there, they won’t accept our greens...There’s nothing to be gained from a trade agreement at the moment. ‘We cannot justify the huge amount of resources we expend on such negotiations. They are a complete waste of time.”
The Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat secretary general, Tuiloma Neroni Slade wants the region to intensify and accelerate its efforts towards regional integration.
The Pacific's Chief Trade Advisor has resigned with a warning that unless Australia and New Zealand act soon to put something of value on the table for the PACER plus trade negotiations, the talks risk falling over.
Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has questioned the merits of trade agreements that serve to benefit the economically powerful more than developing economies.
Any regional economic agreement that excludes Fiji will be an ineffective instrument for trade and development says Trade Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.
