Pacific Trade Ministers will today convene at the Novotel Hotel in Nadi for a 2 day meet to decide on a way forward in negotiations for a new Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU).
In essence, discussions will be on a free trade deal that will shape trading relations with the EU for decades to come.
In the Pacific, Fiji and PNG initialed interim EPAs in late 2007 to avoid tariff hikes on tuna and sugar exports.
The EU is negotiating with 76 nations across Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (the ACP) all at once.
However, in a statement Pacific Network Globalization Coordinator Maureen Penjueli said Pacific Ministers should learn from the Caribbean EPA with the EU signed last week, which basically opens the Caribbean to European exports, businesses and service providers and contains new rules on trade that have been rejected by developing countries at the WTO.
Penjueli said the deal was not a recipe for economic partnership but a menu to serve European economic interests.
She said our Pacific leaders should bear in mind that it is better to walk away from a deal that undermines our development prospects than bow to EU pressure.
