AUCKLAND: Just as Australia’s Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd was defending his record in the Pacific, it has been reported by Radio Australia that the new trade policy released yesterday did not include PACER Plus.
The Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations was left out of the new policy released by Trade Minister Craig Emerson.
This comes after negative criticism of Rudd's diplomacy with Pacific nations such as Fiji.
PACER Plus appears to be under review, according to Patricia Ranald, convenor of Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network, who was interviewed on Radio Australia yesterday.
Ranald said the Pacific agreement was not seen as beneficial to Australia.
“The government is saying that it doesn't want to have trade agreements for the sake of having them, and it will only enter into trade agreements which are of direct benefit to Australia,” she said.
However, Ranald pointed out that “the sort of template of trade agreements that's been pursued in the past doesn't necessarily assist development at all.”
Serious concern
She said she hoped that “genuine development opportunities” would be considered by the government with respect to Pacific Island nations.
The trade policy was released two days after Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop told Sky News that Rudd had taken his eyes of the Pacific.
“My only concern – and this is a serious concern – he seems to have taken his focus away from the Pacific: from PNG, from East Timor, from Fiji,” she said.
Bishop spoke further about the Fiji situation, suggesting that Australia change its approach altogether.
“I would engage with Bainimarama on the question of electoral reform, provide assistance to draft a Constitution, provide assistance to hold an election so that we could see a return to democratic rule," she said.
Rudd defended the government’s performance in the Pacific.
“We have had a 40 percent increase in the overall development assistance budget to these countries,” he said. “We've got to lift them from where they were, because they're lagging against the Millennium Development Goals globally.”
As to his record as prime minister, he said: “You're looking at someone who I think had a 100 percent turn up record for the Pacific Island Forum, my predecessor did not.”
PACER Plus negotiations will be reviewed next month when the 2011 Pacific Islands Forum Trade Ministers' meeting takes place in Tonga on May 18-19.
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