Commentators warn on 'down side' over Pacific free trade

“The neoliberal approaches that are currently in meltdown remain the paradigm that New Zealand and Australia are foisting on Pacific countries.” - Professor Jane Kelsey

By Krista Ferguson: Pacific Media Centre

New Zealand and Australia may be considering a softer approach to free trade negotiations after recent Pacific discussions in Auckland and Vanuatu amid criticisms of being rushed into an agreement and “bullying”.

Informal meetings of trade ministers and officials discussed key issues around extending the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations (PACER) to a regional trade agreement (PACER-Plus).

The coordinator of the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG), Maureen Penjueli, says there are concerns over developed countries negotiating with developing countries around free trade.

“There’s significant loss of government revenue from tariffs, a loss of jobs, and a loss of policy space,” she says.

“It will remove the key policy instruments like export taxes. It also removes the protection for local industries.”

On the investment side, restrictions such as the requirement for foreign investors to partner with local industries are lost, she says.

“A lot would be forfeited.”

Research commissioned by Pacific governments confirmed these potential problems, she says.

She pointed out a gap analysis undertaken for Pacific Island Forum trade ministers by Nathan Associates.

Executive director of Oxfam Barry Coates says the aid agency is hoping for a follow through on stated commitment from officials of Australia and New Zealand that the trade discussion will benefit the Pacific.

“We’re looking for reality of negotiations to echo this stated aim.”

Unequal relationship
There is an unequal relationship in capacity for negotiations, says Coates.

“Attention needs to be paid for Pacific nations to have the right people and time to research.”

The proposal from New Zealand and Australia to start formal negotiations in August is too early, he says.

The chairman of the New Zealand Pacific Business Council, Gilbert Ullrich, also says more time is needed as there are many questions still to answer.

“Vanuatu’s income comes from the tariffs on their imports. This funds government operations. What will replace this if tariffs are reduced?”

According to a PANG newsletter, Vanuatu stands to lose around 17 percent of its government revenue if tariffs are removed.

Ullrich points out that he is a great believer in free trade but says this is about fair trade with multi-lateral dimensions.

“We need to address some issues first including the exclusion of Fiji and the development of common standards across islands. The money should go into food, health and safety.

“Is PACER going to produce any jobs for the young educated people leaving school?”

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade does not consult with the New Zealand Pacific Business Council, he says.

“The free trade discussions are all theory to keep a lot of bureaucrats busy.

“They haven’t demonstrated how free trade can work properly.”

Neo-colonial behaviour
Dr Jane Kelsey, an Auckland University professor of law, says New Zealand and Australia have displayed neo-colonial behaviour all along.

“New Zealand and Australia will continue to bully their way around and are likely to employ a divide and rule strategy,” she says.

Dr Kelsey says there needs to be a rethink of the model.

“The neoliberal approaches that are currently in meltdown remain the paradigm that New Zealand and Australia are foisting on Pacific countries.”

Pacific countries will remain under enormous pressure, she says.

Dr Kelsey says some Pacific countries are choosing to deflect this by negotiating with other nations, notably China.

Penjueli says PANG is extremely concerned by the interpretation of the Pacific position by Australia and New Zealand to date.

“The region is clear that they are not ready [to begin formal negotiations]. They want an Office of Chief Trade Advisor. They want to have the opportunity to undertake national consultations.”

But Penjueli also says that New Zealand and Australia are starting to show some appreciation of the issues.

No directives were given at the recent Auckland informal meeting, according to information provided to PANG by officials. Penjueli sees this as a very positive sign.

Funding support
Coates says a proposal for a Pacific negotiating office with a chief trade adviser based in Vanuatu has been put forward with a request for funding support.

New Zealand in principal agrees but they have offered insufficient funds to support this, he says.

Penjueli says the role of chief trade adviser is a critical issue.

“There’s a concern that because of the fast tracking of PACER-Plus that the technical skills for negotiation aren’t there.”

The Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) secretariat has provided the technical expertise to date during trade discussions at the request of Pacific Trade Ministers.

New Zealand and Australia are members of PIF along with 14 other Pacific nations.

“There’s a clear tension there and this is a critical issue to resolve.”

Fiji excluded
At the moment, Fiji is excluded from the trade discussions.

Coates says: “It is hard to imagine a Pacific free trade agreement without Fiji.

“The country plays a crucial role as a trade route and as an exporter to other Pacific Islands. There needs to be some careful thinking around this.”

The situation in Fiji is changing rapidly so this is another reason to delay the start of formal negotiations, he says.

Ullrich also asks how Fiji will be dealt with.

“They are the largest manufacturer in the Pacific. Fiji is the hub, the centre of trade. There has been a 50 percent increase in trade between Fiji and China in January alone.”

Penjueli says that a change of thinking is beginning to emerge from New Zealand and Australia on how to engage Fiji in the trade discussions. She believes trade discussions with Fiji will be an exception to the current exclusions.

Dr Kelsey says it is typical hypocrisy that in areas where New Zealand and Australia do have interests they turn a blind eye to their positions on exclusion of Fiji.

Aid and trade
Dr Kelsey says the recent announcement from Foreign Minister Murray McCully about NZAid gives an indication that New Zealand’s aid spending would be aligned with foreign policy and that this would be geared to economic development.

New Zealand is likely to become more intransigent and use aid as leverage in trade discussions, says Dr Kelsey.

Coates says there is a fine line between development aid to facilitate trade and trade discussions.

“There should be no use of aid to sweeten a bad deal. Everyone recognises this.

“But there is a need to provide financial support for Pacific nations to aid development of their export capacity.

“There’s a fine line. Pacific nations will be looking for reassurance on this.”

Road map
Penjueli says a road map proposal developed by PIF members describes a pathway to trade through a phased approach and includes clear criteria for how to proceed.

The recent meeting in Vanuatu sought to refine this document along with the proposal for the chief trade adviser.

The road map identifies 2013 as the preferred date for formal negotiations to begin.

The next formal meeting of trade ministers will be held in Samoa in June. Following this there is a Pacific Trade Forum meeting in Cairns in August.

Krista Ferguson is a Graduate Diploma in Journalism student on the AUT Asia-Pacific Journalism course.

Pictured: Dr Jane Kelsey ... criticisms of bullying by Australia and New Zealand.

Big Brothers Behaving Badly
Aid increases as NZAID changes focus

Review: Master storyteller's challenging vision

In Search of the Friendly Islands, by Kalafi Moala. Hawai'i: Pasifika Foundation Press, and Auckland, NZ: Pacific Media Centre (AUT University).
ISBN 978-1-877314-75-9. 148 pp.

Reviewed by Josephine Latu: Pacific Media Watch

Kalafi Moala is no stranger to confrontation. He spent 26 days in prison for contempt of Parliament in 1996, along with MP ‘Akilisi Pohiva and fellow journalist Filo ‘Akau’ola. The ruling was later overturned as “unconstitutional”, but this didn’t stop the government from systematically banning his newspaper, Taimi ‘o Tonga, from the kingdom - twice.

Before that, the Taimi team had suffered numerous raids, arrests and threats at the hands of the authorities.

Things have changed since these landmark crackdowns on media freedom - Moala has now taken over the government-owned Chronicle as one of his projects – but as his new book proves, the man still has an uncompromising propensity to "tell it like it is".

In Search of the Friendly Islands, his sophomore publication, is sure to make waves - and not only with the governing authorities. It is a jolting dose of realism for any Tongan.

The title addresses Moala's scepticism with the myth of a perpetually serene and culturally idolised “Friendly Islands”. Instead, the Tonga he portrays is a problematic site of contested power, tangled by the influences of modernisation and globalisation.

In less than 150 pages, the book probes the gross contradictions found in Tongan culture - chronic violence, elitism, and religious hypocrisy, among others, interweaving historical accounts, philosophical reflections, and political analysis with lucid real-life stories. It’s what Moala calls the “Pacific mode of story-telling”.

He argues that the traditional Tongan culture is rooted deep in a system of domination and oppression. But importantly, more than just politics, it involves the power of “men over women, parents over children, aristocrats over peasants, nobles over commoners, teachers over students, priests and ministers over laity, and rulers over people” (p. 31). It’s how Tongans relate to the world.

Cultural brutality
This ideology of domination-oppression has inspired the violence common in both Tongan history (the "Dark Ages" of bloody civil war) and today’s communities. The very first pages vividly recount actual stories of such cultural brutality.

“Social conditioning” drives it home, and from a very young age, a Tongan child will learn that there is a pecking order, and everyone knows their place.

Yet, in a grim twist, Moala spends a chapter discussing how the “oppressed became the oppressor” during the notorious 16/11 riot of 2006 that destroyed 80 percent of the capital’s business district and left eight people dead. A long-time champion of reform, he explicitly denounces members of the current democratic party, as well as the foreign press who persist in portraying them as “the” voice of the people.

"Parachute journalists" ignore all the knotty facets in Tonga’s political movements - break-away parties, factions and turncoats – let alone understand the role of culture.

However, any Tongan is vulnerable to moral corruption and self-interest, and Moala follows with many an amusing anecdote that show the ambiguity of Tongans towards certain "Christian" or "traditional" fundamentals. For instance, forms of “trickery” or deceit are often condoned – if you can get away with it.

Meanwhile, Chinese immigrants are heavily discriminated against precisely because they are stereotyped as “cunning”. Ironically still, at the macro-level, Tongans rely on huge injections of aid from the Chinese government, in a relationship that will likely be permanent.

Moala continues to probe Tongan politics and society and the last three chapters of the book deal with the hefty issues of culture, social structure and spirituality. His challenge is to approach reform at a deeper level of ideology and psyche.

The key problem is not the lack of seats for People’s Representatives in Parliament, but the mentality that had normalised this system for years - one steeped in a culture of domination and oppression, and still very much around.

Soul-searching
For Kalafi, political reform can only fully come about with cultural reform, and it can only be successful through soul-searching at a spiritual level.

In Search of the Friendly Islands is a courageous book with an essentially positive message – one that heralds change. It will likely garner some disapproval because it is so candid (as professor Ian Campbell speculates in his foreword – “many Tongans will be embarrassed by what Kalafi has to tell them”).

Who would be proud of “the incompetence of Tongan clergy and community leaders” to deal with domestic violence (p. 25), or child-rearing habits that yield “Tongan kids [who] do not argue; they just attack each other” (p. 28)?

However, Moala’s clever style is not to simply state his opinions as truth. A master storyteller, he provides personal stories and incidents well-known in the community, and asks, "well don’t you see it too?"

It takes a degree of guts to bring one’s own views to the public forum, and invite debate and much-needed dialogue.

After all, what Moala sees as “deceit” among Tongans, others may see as resourcefulness - a resistance to the moral regime; what he sees as political self-ambition, others may see as vital radicalism; and while much of his descriptions appear to be about Tongans "in general", others may wish to avoid generalisations about any culture. There are always pockets of resistance to any status quo – Moala himself represents one of them.

He rightly points out that “culture is not God Almighty” (p. 111). One will always find contradictions as old becomes new, young becomes old, ideas are borrowed while others are lost.

The challenge for modern Tongan culture is how our people can adapt to these changes in a way that is safe, productive and constructive for everyone. There are questions to ponder together - what traditions should be kept and what can be done away with? Should Tonga immediately "cut and paste" a foreign model of democracy? How can leaders effectively convey changes to the masses?

As a Tongan, reading this book was wholly engrossing - but not because I agree with everything Moala writes. The most important contribution of this book is that it encourages the reader to look beneath the surface, inviting different interpretations and reactions that will hopefully result in dialogue.

The issues - moral, cultural, political - are apparent in any society faced with globalisation and development. However, people need to be encouraged to question why things are the way they are and whether there are different solutions.

Josephine Latu is contributing editor of Pacific Media Watch at AUT University.

In Search of the Friendly Islands is available from:
Pasifika Foundation Press, Hawai'i, or
Pacific Media Centre, RRP NZ$34.95

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