Good progress at Pacific trade in services talks
Updated
Pacific Island nations are hoping to meet a deadline of the end of this year for a regional agreement on trade in services. The agreement would become part of PICTA, the overall Pacific Free Trade Agreement, which at the moment covers only trade in goods.Pac Islands Forum Secretary-General, Neroni Slade, told a meeting of senior officials in Nadi that creating a good environment for trade in services is crucial for the economic development of the region. Shiu Raj, the Forum Secretariat's Acting Director of Economic Governance, says the 3-day Nadi meeting made good progress.
Presenter Jemima Garrett
Speaker: Acting Director of Economic Governance at the Pacific Islands Forum Secreatariat Shiu Raj
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RAJ: I think the most important development was that all 14 Forum Island countries were able to negotiate further their trading services arrangement among themselves with the view of going back and undertaking further consultations with the respective stakeholders and hoping to come back again in the next few months for another round of negotiations to progress.
GARRETT: At this meeting, countries were to put offers and requests for opening their economies in selected services sectors, what sort of offers and requests did you see?
RAJ: Well, it's going to be unfair to discuss individual countries offers and requests. but generally speaking, I think it's important to know that most of the island countries were interested in opening up identified sectors, such as the telecommunications sector, the business and professional services sector, and aspects of the tourism sector and as well as financial sector and aspects of transportation sector, which came out as one of a group of key sectors, where they were willing to open up their economy.
GARRETT: One of the priorities for the region is sorting out a mechanism for skilled labour mobility. Where do things stand with that now?
RAJ: With regards to temporary labour mobility among the Forum Island countries, what the meeting did was they discussed a very draft concept of what could possibly be, a temporary movement of natural person's scheme under the PICTA. But as I said, it is really a very draft concept, at this stage on which the members will be providing their comments in the next weeks and based on those comments, this draft concept is going to be defined. Now the idea is for this draft concept to be taken for national consultations in all the 14 Forum Island countries to determine what are the reactions to this proposition for skilled labour mobility among the Forum Island countries.
GARRETT: I guess because some countries would be at risk of a brain drain?
RAJ: Well, what is being sought through this PICTA team and peace scheme is circulation of labour and once again, the Forum Island countries are very aware of where the skills shortages are. And the idea is to really find a scheme which can help them meet these skills shortages, but at the same time, acknowledging that they do not create an environment where there is going to be an arrangement where there is brain drain.
GARRETT: In the current global financial crisis, maintaining jobs is vital. To what extent could more open trade in service industries help efforts to create or to keep employment in the region?
RAJ: The agreement which is being negotiated among the Forum Island countries seeks to give a clear message to potential investors and people with skills who could possibly add value to the economies in the Forum Island countries as to what is the extent of commitment that these countries are making towards facilitating investment and to business development in general. So despite the current global economic crisis that we have, we are nonetheless hoping that the arrangement that the Forum Island countries are currently negotiating would actually help them to some extent in fact to deal with the arrangements.
