John Salong, the director of the Vanwoods micro-financing scheme, said foreign technocrats are trying to lure Vanuatu into trade deals which are unfair to the country due to its strategic disadvantages.
Salong said Vanuatu is a small country and it survives as such because it is not a part of the mainstream industrialized capitalist market process.
He said ni-Vanuatu make ends meet through non-formal ways like the custom economy, something which shouldn’t be regulated.
“Vanuatu should begin to look at them as the principal behind how it operates in these international trade agreements,” he said. “Where is our exclusive competitive advantage? And we have some. And when we’re going and we just tow the line in terms of access to the World Trade Organization, we go and tow the line in terms of falling into pressure that will come with Pacer Plus [a free trade deal] with Australia. We are not focusing on our strength.”
