PRESS RELEASE (42/10)
 

Pohnpei, FSM, 30th April 2010 - Pacific Islands Forum Trade Ministers ended their two-day meeting in Pohnpei, in the Federated States of Micronesia(FSM) with agreement on measures to boost trade and investment to help increase growth and development in Pacific island countries.
 

Ministers from Australia, FSM, Kiribati, New Zealand, Republic of Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Tonga attended the meeting. Cook Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea and Tuvalu were represented at Senior Officials level. Governor of the State of Pohnpei, Hon. John Ehsa welcomed the Ministers and delegates to Pohnpei.

“This was a critical Forum Trade Ministers’ Meeting (FTMM) for the economies of our region as we considered measures to address the challenges posed by the global financial crisis on our fragile developing economies,” says Vice President of the Federated States of Micronesia, Hon. Alik L. Alik, who chaired the meeting.

“I believed that our meeting achieved its objectives with the decisions we made on how to progress the arrangements towards the negotiations of PACER Plus, the new strategy for the Pacific Island Trade and Invest Offices, funding arrangements for the Forum World Trade Organisation (WTO) Office in Geneva, developments relating to traditional knowledge and intellectual property, and Aid-for-Trade.”

Vice President Alik states: “As Leaders of the region, it is our responsibility to come up with real solutions that will address the global challenges such as the impacts of climate change, food security, high energy cost and high level of unemployment, to name a few.”

On PACER Plus, the Ministers noted the progress made towards the establishment of the Office of the Chief Trade Adviser and agreed to further meetings of PACER Plus Officials, including a workshop on Rules of Origin and Customs Procedures.

Ministers further noted the fundamental importance of shipping, aviation, telecommunications and other infrastructure to increased trade in goods and services between member countries and agreed that these were priority issues for PACER Plus.
 

Forum Island Countries who are Members and Observers of the World Trade Organization pledged their financial support for the Forum’s WTO Office in Geneva, and will commence direct support of the Office from 2011. The Office is critical in helping Forum Island Countries build capacity on WTO matters and ensures countries have a voice in negotiations undertaken in Geneva. Ministers also thanked Forum Resident Representative Paulo Kautoke, who heads the Geneva Office, for his service to the Forum as he leaves the Office to take up a new position with the Secretariat of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States.

Decisions of the FTMM will be submitted to the Forum Leaders at their meeting to be held in Port Vila, Vanuatu in August.

The next FTMM will be held in the Kingdom of Tonga in April 2011.
 

ENDS.

For media enquiries, contact Mr Johnson Honimae, the Forum Secretariat’s Media Officer on phone 691 9228345 or email: johnsonh@forumsec.org.fj