PNG to renegotiate treaty on fisheries

By ANCILLA WRAKUALE
MINISTER for Commerce Trade and Industry Charles Abel will be in Fiji this week to re-negotiate the US multilateral treaty on fisheries between the 16 Pacific Island parties.
Abel said the move to re-negotiate the terms and agreement under the treaty came after Papua New Guinea decided to withdraw from the treaty because it did not agree to some of the terms.
He said the negotiations “will see a better deal for our tuna”.
Abel will meet with the deputy assistant secretary of the United States and will be addressing representatives from other Pacific Island countries who are also parties to the treaty.
The US treaty first began in 1987 and it has been renewed on two occasions, with the last renewal in 2003 and was to run for 10 years until 2013.
The US treaty enabled US purse seine fishing vessels to fish in the waters of the 16 Pacific Island countries that included Australia, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
Abel said though PNG won’t be very much affected by this, it was also important to consider that the treaty benefits other smaller Pacific Island states.   
Meanwhile, when asked about the current controversial rice project in Bereina in Central province, Abel said the proposed rice project was currently under negotiations and it would be too early to comment.
“The decision has not been made yet and the government is still scrutinising it.
“It will not be appropriate to comment more while the project is under negotiations and coming through the process, adding that what the Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Sir Puka Temu said last week was right because the decision has not been made yet.”
However, Abel said the government will not entertain anything that will cause Papua New Guineans to pay more for rice.
“This government is in principle against monopoly and this applies to any projects,” he said.