National Study on Trade by Pacer Plus consultants

A team of consultants are in the Cook Islands to carry out a national study on the current state of play in trade in the Cook Islands and our trading partners in New Zealand and Australia.
The Pacer Plus study has been commissioned by our Government and facilitated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration, Business Trade and Investment Board and local consultant, Teresa Manarangi Trott.
Pacer stands for Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations signed with Australia and NZ at a Forum Leaders decision at the 40th Pacific Forum held in 2009.
The aim is to identify initiatives and opportunities which could be incorporated into the PACER Plus agreement and creating tangible economic and trade benefits for our country. . Team members are John Licht (Pacific Institute of Public Policy, Vanuatu), Don Jacobson (West Australia) and Jim Gosselin (Forum Secretariat) and former international advisor with Foreign Affairs in Cook Islands.
A series of meetings have been arranged for the consultants to discuss issues related to trade with the relevant government agencies, private sector industry leaders and non government organizations (NGO). Issues discussed were educating and training of human resources, making it attractive to remain in the country rather than overseas and looking at infrastructure.
Other issues raised were perceived tax barriers, whether or not the subsidy on the Air New Zealand Los Angeles route was effective and the value of tourism to the economy.
On Monday 11 January, talks were held with government officials in Foreign Affairs and Immigration, MFEM, Statistics, BTIB.and the non government organsiations. On Tuesday, the team met with the private sector including the commercial banks, BCI, president of the Chamber of Commerce and some inbound operators in the tourism industry.
Private talks have also been scheduled where the team can have more in-depth talks with various people including with the Financial Secretary, the Secretary of Agriculture and president of the Cook Islands Workers Association.
Also on the list are the Secretary of Education, the legal advisor of Marine Resources, head of Policy at OPM, the Secretary of Justice and later with the head of Tourism along with the chairman of the board.
Balance of payments in surplus but imports way too high
So far, the statistics have reconfirmed that tourism is our still our number one industry and that our balance of payments from goods and services are in surplus. That is the good news, but the bad news is that export earnings are down despite the best efforts of the pearl industry and tuna fishing industry to generate revenue for the country.
Nevertheless, the team are upbeat about the Cook Islands saying we are more educated and sophisticated as a whole in comparison to other Pacific nations. They also note that Cook Islanders are New Zealand citizens and therefore have free entry into NZ and Australia without the immigration barriers experienced by most other Pacific countries.
Unlike other Pacific countries we do not depend on remittances from overseas such as for instance, the Kingdom of Tonga where 40% of their income is from that source. However, as jokingly pointed out, instead of depending on our relatives for remittances, we rely on assistance from the governments of New Zealand and Australia.
The meetings wrap up on Friday with a debrief and review of their findings with Foreign Affairs and Immigration.

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