Vanuatu hopes to benefit from new free trade deal

By Mark Haihuie
VANUATU has been shortchanged under the current Melanesia Free Trade Agreement and hopes plans to develop a new agreement will have more economic benefits.
Vanuatu Foreign Affairs Minister Ralph Regenvanu said the recent decision by Melanesia Spearhead Group’s to come up with new trade agreement should contain better conditions.
“From Vanuatu’s perspective, we are generally a loser in the free trade agreement to date and we hope we can mitigate these losses with a new agreement,” Rergenvanu said.
“The new agreement should fix some loopholes and provide better conditions for trade from our perspective that would allow a very small economy like ours to get more benefit.
“We are probably the smallest economy in the MSG compared to giants like PNG and Fiji. There is a perception that Vanuatu is one of the losers in the Melanesia Free Trade Agreement and we want to improve the terms in this.”
Regenvanu noted how PNG and Fiji had committed to industrialising their economy when asked about economic challenges facing the sub-region.
“Regionally, of course, economies are at different levels and Vanuatu is small in MSG but I think one of the biggest challenges now in all the MSG countries is not so much inequality between countries but inequality within countries themselves. That is the new big challenge as we are following global trends where there is a rise of inequality for all nations that will threaten sustainable development.”
“Fiji and Papua New Guinea have committed to assisting our economy, especially to industrialise it so we hope that promised assistance will be forthcoming in the next few years, especially with it being aligned with the MSG theme for better trade and sustainable development.”