Deeper trade and investment within the Commonwealth Group of Nations can happen through enhancing and driving the Commonwealth Connectivity Agenda, says the Minister for International Trade and Investment, Hon. Richard Maru who attended the Second Commonwealth Trade Ministers Meeting in London, United Kingdom last week. The Trade Ministers who attended the meeting discussed the agenda on deepening trade and investment within the group and they also discussed current issues facing the commonwealth group such as climate change and digital trade, and how they can work together to share experiences and technology to address these issues which are common amongst all members.
“The Commonwealth group is made up of a very diverse group. We have the most advanced economies to the least developed and most vulnerable economies. Further, we have membership that are spread across the globe from Europe, Africa, Asia the Caribbean, to the small atoll island states in the Pacific. Hence, deeper trade and investment within this group can happen through enhancing and driving the Commonwealth Connectivity Agenda. Through deeper cooperation amongst the Commonwealth group through sharing of experiences, best practices knowledge, skills, and technology, we will achieve deeper trade and investment within the Commonwealth,” said Minister Maru.
“For example, Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister, Hon. James Marape visited Gabon recently to attend the One Forest Summit. Whilst in Gabon, Prime Minister Marape visited a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) particularly for downstream processing of forestry products.
Our Prime Minister was very impressed and has directed for increased cooperation with Gabon to begin to foster such technical cooperation to learn and share experiences in this sector with the view to set up similar processing facility in PNG as we intend to stop all round log exports by 2025, and process all our logs domestically and its timely for PNG to learn from Gabon on its experiences in the forestry sector,’ said Minister Maru.
“Similarly, PNG will be seeking assistance in technical know-how and investment from India in the production and processing of cotton, wheat and animal feed which PNG has huge potential for development,” said Minister Maru.
Minister Maru added that PNG Government was driving similar policies in the fisheries sector.
“Through a domestication policy, PNG wants all fish caught in PNG waters to be processed and value added before exporting. Hence, wish to seek further technical cooperation from member states who have experience in the fisheries sector,” said Minister Maru.
The Trade Ministers also discussed the issue on climate change and how trade can be used as a policy tool to mitigate climate change. Discussions on this included the ongoing negotiations on the WTO Fisheries Subsidies and how the Commonwealth can work together to achieve a better outcome that will address subsidies and illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing.
“Climate change is real and has created a bigger challenge for PNG like many other countries. Many of our small islands and atolls are under threat from rising sea levels. Constant changes in weather patterns have affected agricultural production and natural disasters are becoming frequent. This calls for urgent climate change mitigation measures,” said Minister Maru.
Minister Maru updated the meeting on the climate change mitigation measures PNG is undertaking and called for the free movement of clean or green technologies so that the developing and least develop countries can achieve sustainable development as well as meet their economic development aspiration. Minister Maru further called on the Developing countries not to use the climate change issue to put up unnecessary trade barriers to trade.
Minister Maru whilst taking the opportunity, told the meeting that PNG exports 60% of its coffee to the European Union (EU).
“The EU parliament has now put up a legislation on traceability where it will be required for a coffee bag to be traced back to the famer to ensure that the coffee is not produced from a logging area. This alone will affect a lot of PNG coffee famers particularly small household producers who do not have the financial and technical capacity to meet this new requirement in the EU market,” said Minister Maru.
“I am therefore calling on the developing countries not to put in place this kind of trade distorting barriers in disguise of climate change mitigation policies and instead help developing, least developed and small island states with capacity building so that they are able to meet their development aspirations and also address climate change issues,” said Minister Maru.
