PACERPlus

PACERPlus is a proposed free trade agreement between the Forum Islands Countries (FICs) and Australia and New Zealand. The negotiation for this agreement was triggered under the provisions of the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations (PACER) with Australia and New Zealand. As soon as the FICs start negotiating the Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union, the FICs must also start negotiating a FTA with Australia and New Zealand. The PACERPlus is non-conventional and hybrid FTA as it contains a Chapter on Economic Development Assistance. The negotiation of the PACERPlus has now been completed and was signed in Nuku'alofa, Royal Kingdom of Tonga in June 2017 by the following countries, Australia, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. The Office of the Chief Trade Adviser (OCTA) was setup in 2010 to advise and assist the FICs on the negotiation of the PACERPlus, it was led by Dr Edwini Keissie formerly of the WTO, the OCTA was closed in Dec 2017 after the completion of its task.[1][2]

At the end of 2018, two signatories completed internal processes on ratifying PACERPlus, New Zealand was the first to ratify PACERPlus in Oct 2018, followed by Australia in December 2018 and Samoa in July 2019. With 3 countries which have ratified, 5 more are needed to meet the minimum of 8 signatory countries required to ratify the PACERPlus for this agreement to come into force.