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PACER

What’s so new about Rudd’s Pacific policy?
20-Sep-2008
The Rudd Government has made much of its “new approach” to Australia’s island neighbours, but the view from the Pacific is that not much has changed.
Viewpoint: Labour mobility deals
9-Aug-2008 Islands Business
Under pressure to sign on to new free trade agreements, Pacific Islands governments interested in securing positive outcomes for their peoples see deals on labour mobility as potential development gains. But is this the right approach? And what are the potential costs?
NGO says Australia bullying Pacific over free trade deal
6-Aug-2008 Pacific Magazine
Australia has been accused of trying to fast-track new free trade negotiations with Pacific Island countries at a recent regional trade ministers’ meeting in the Cook Islands.
Govt ‘must include workers in EPA talks’
1-Jul-2008
The Fiji Trades Union Congress (FTUC) has written to the interim Government to include workers in talks regarding the various trade agreements Fiji is treaty to.
Pacific trade ministers slam EU Trade Commissioner Mandelson
18-Apr-2008 Pacific Network on Globalisation
New letters show extent of dissent among Pacific trade ministers as ministers accuse top EU trade official of being "domineering" and using divide and rule tactics to split the region.
Crean spruiks free trade in Pacific
28-Feb-2008
The tiny island nations of the south Pacific should have high ambitions heading into free trade negotiations with Australia, Trade Minister Simon Crean says.
PACER: Islands could lose $10m anually in revenue
6-Sep-2007 Islands Business
Some Pacific island countries stand to lose up to US$10 million annually in revenue due to trade liberalisation under the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations, according to a report commissioned by the Secretariat of the Pacific Islands Forum
US-NZ Partnership Forum: Neo-liberalism - Pacific Style
31-Aug-2007
According to the organizers, this year’s US-NZ Partnership Forum will in part focus on the, “potential for the United States and New Zealand to cooperate on ... economic development and sustainability in the Asia Pacific region.”
Australia seeks equal trade rights in South Pacific
13-Jun-2007
Australia says it wants trade rights in the South Pacific equal to those being negotiated by the European Union.
Talks to look at Pacific trade deal
12-Jun-2007
A meeting in August is likely to explore the possibility of a free trade agreement between Pacific Island countries and New Zealand and Australia but rapid progress is not expected.
Australia And New Zealand Seek Pacific FTA
12-Jun-2007
Australia and New Zealand will begin discussions in August to strike a free trade deal with a group of Pacific island nations.
A citizen’s guide to an emerging empire
6-Nov-2006 Aotearoa Indymedia
This article is an introduction or guide to PICTA, PACER and the WTO in the Pacific. The ’guide’ gives readers basic knowledge of both trade agreements and the stepping stone function they provide towards the WTO re-colonising the Pacific.
A citizen’s guide to an emerging empire
2-Nov-2006 Aotearoa Indymedia
This article is an introduction or guide to PICTA, PACER and the WTO in the Pacific. The ’guide’ gives readers basic knowledge of both trade agreements and the stepping stone function they provide towards the WTO re-colonising the Pacific.
10 reasons to challenge the Pacific EPA
28-Sep-2006
Do the Pacific Islands’ negotiators genuinely hope they can negotiate a beneficial Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union or are they simply going through the motions and doing what is required of them under the Cotonou Agreement 2000? In the secretive chess game of trade negotiations it is impossible to know.
Understanding Fiji’s trade agreements
19-Sep-2006 Fiji Times
Most of us are usually kept in the dark when it comes to assessing the impact of trade agreements signed by our government. But this should not be the trend because whatever agreements are signed by our leaders eventually affect us all.
Opening of the 9th Roundtable Meeting for Pacific Island Countries on WTO and Regional Trade Agreements
3-Jul-2006
Jim Anderton opened the 9th Round Table meeting for Pacific Island Countries on WTO and regional trade agreement provisions in Wellington today. He stressed that although currently only three Pacific Island Countries are WTO members, it is important to become part of the multilateral trade system.
Pacific nations’ threat
28-Jul-2005 Post Courier
Papua New Guinea and other Pacific Island countries are likely to be forced to drop trade barriers earlier than planned to Australia and New Zealand.
Pacific Island nations seek closer economic ties with NZ, Australia
4-Jun-2005 Angola Press
Pacific Islands Forum countries have decided it is now time to move beyond their existing SPARTECA agreement with Australia and New Zealand, according to reports from Nadi, Fiji, on Friday.
Groups call for end of Pacific trade negotiations
25-May-2005 Scoop
"The current EPA negotiations are a game of Russian roulette where the casualties will be the people of the Pacific Islands," said Professor Jane Kelsey at the release of A People’s Guide to the Pacific’s Economic Partnership Agreement in Suva today.
A People’s Guide to PACER
25-Aug-2004
A People’s Guide to PACER by Prof Jane Kelsey. Commissioned by the Pacific Network on Globalisation - Aug 2004