Tonga needs a trade commissioner to NZ says community leader Featured
Melino Maka Chairman of Tonga Advisory Council
29 March, 2017. A community leader in Auckland is urging Tonga's government to appoint a trade commissioner to New Zealand, saying the markets offer a lot of untapped potential.
Melino Maka, who is the chair of the Tongan Advisory Council, said Tonga needs to put more emphasis on strengthening its trade links with New Zealand.
Mr Maka said Tongan growers and exporters have previously attempted to enter the New Zealand market but have needed more support to succeed.
He said the government would be investing in Tonga's long-term economy by appointing a trade commissioner.
"They should for the sake of Tonga's economy but knowing what's come from Tonga at the moment, maybe it's not on their radar," he said.
"But I think they need to understand, for Tonga and also for the economy to grow, it needs to be their number one priority."
"Tonga does not have a high commissioner in New Zealand, only a consulate, so a trade commissioner would play a key role," Mr Maka said.
-RNZI
3 comments
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MR. MELINO MAKA, chair of the Tongan Advisory Council, is barking up the wrong tree. Problems with Tongan trade with NZ is an old problem: fruit flies, fumigation of products, and NZ's trade protections, are some of the major issues.
Mr Maka needs to address the "supply line" issue between Tongan growers and middle men in NZ markets. Many Tongan growers are tired of being cheated by NZ marketers, and they feel discouraged and quit altogether.
Secondly, Tongan growers are subsistence farmers. Keeping the supply line sufficiently supplied requires large plantations running 12 months a year. Tongan growers are not. They are subsistence growers first, then commercial farmers second. -
THANK YOU, AISEA MATIU...Subsistence economy in Tonga is a barrier to organizing an effective trade agreement in the free market. So called farmers, and fishermen, are not doing it for "commercial" purposes, or for economics purposes.
But rather a "convenience" subsistence practice:
We grow our crops, and go fishing, when we feel like it, and only to avoid starvation. Commercial trade is an after thought. Additionally, supplying the market is a product of large-scale farming and fishing expeditions to take advantage of "economy of scales." -
First thing first, so to begin with, one must ask, what has Tonga got to trade with, in order to warrant the appointment of a Tongan trade commissioner to NZ, Mr Maka? This is especially so in view of the fact that Tonga's economy is largely if not entirely consumer-led, service-based and far from being producer-driven, innovation-charged.
Even when specifically targeting Tongan growers and exporters, how have the real key "supply-versus-demand" problems be mediated and worked into a two-way sustainable and equitable but profitable trade and exchange relations equation? What about the current state of the art, which effectively but necessarily and really requires optimum level of knowledge and skills, technology and capital for such an ambitious yet imagined task ahead?
What about the more culturally-induced problems, where there is requirement for a radical shift in attitudes from a condition subsistence economy ('ikonomika fakakai mo fakafuakavenga / fakatauhifonua) to a state of cash economy ('ikonomika fakatau mo fakatupupa'anga / fakapisinisi)?
How on earth would you address this? Must we adopt a total, bottom-up, front-to-back rather than a partial, top-down, back-to-front approach to these problems? Is it not in the raising of problems and not the presentation of solutions that real solutions to actual problems be found?
I suggest that you please read the brilliant comments by S. A. Mokofisi on the article "Tonga coastal fish population decline," with bearings on many of the problems reflected upon above.