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Ministry of Trade permanent secretary Shaheen Ali said Fiji rejected the PACER Plus agreement signed by Pacific Island leaders with Australia and New Zealand in Tonga in 2017 because it did not provide enough flexibility and benefits to offset the potential risks and costs.
Ali told the PACER Plus plenary session that the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) clause in PACER was deemed to have been triggered in 2008 when Fiji and Papua New Guinea signed the Interim Economic Partnership Agreement with the EU.
Ali said the PACER Plus negotiations started in 2009 and lasted until 2017. Fiji joined the negotiations in 2014 after being suspended from the forum.
He said that although Fiji joined the negotiations… Fiji contributed positively to the negotiations, PACER Plus contained a number of flexibilities that might not have existed without Fiji’s participation.
The Ministry of Trade stressed that Auckland University Professor Chris Noonan will lead the negotiations for Fiji to rejoin PACER PLUS.
Ali said Professor Noonan was an integral part of the Fijian team when we negotiated the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), which coincidentally was a trade agreement that included Australia, New Zealand and Fiji.
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