Reality of Pacific Trade Featured
Papuans gather at the roadside to welcome China's President Xi Jinping in Port Moresby during the APEC summit
28 November, 2018. PACER Plus concerns free trade between Australia and New Zealand and Pacific Island countries.
One of its principal aims is to boost growth and improve living standards throughout the Pacific, by providing new job opportunities for Islanders and for them to 'open up' their economies for further trade opportunities.
However, will this be beneficial in the long term for our Pacific Nation neighbours, or will it make their future more vulnerable and susceptible to Chinese influence?
Cleo Paskal argues that 'it is China, with its extensive government backing of business, which is the main winner'.
But if this is the case, will Australia and New Zealand be able to maintain their influence within the region, or is it already too late?
Cleo Paskal is an Associate Fellow in the Energy, Environment and Resources Department and Asia-Pacific Programme, Chattam House, Royal Institute of International Affairs.
-ABC
1 comment
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Australia and New Zealand must do better , if they want to maintain their influence over the welfare of their poor smaller neighbours . What the nations of oceania need is work , somehow , something must be done to get the populace of these countries into some kind of employment . Australia or New Zealand could build a factory for the production of coconut juice , guava juice , maybe even process the juice from the root of the" SI " plant (Cordyline terminalis) and make it a sweetener . All three grow prolifically on every island making their processing a viable option for export thereby providing work for planters and factory workers alike. Would it not be more profitable to channel aid monies into setting up projects,that would see the unemployed of these island nations find employment . We talk about trade opportunities what trade ? Might be trade with a few , the larger one , but not all because of their size and what they have to trade with is not worth much so whats to trade? . the work scheme which employ seasonal workers from Pacific island on farms in both countries is not enough to satisfy the demand for work for the unemployed in individual island nations . This is where China is gaining the upper hand by opening up it's markets to Pacific countries produce plus providing large amount of money under the guise of it being AID which in the end will cost these island nations dearly