Instead, MSG ministers recognize Fiji’s right to participate in regional trade agreements.
“MSG opposed the potential economic fragmentation of the Pacific and Fiji’s exclusion from regional trade related meetings,” the outcomes document said.
The five-member MSG countries have also considered a sub regional approach to pursuing PACER Plus negotiations.
No further explanation on this subregional approach was explained by the MSG ministers at the end of their meeting in Suva.
But Pacific leaders, which includes MSG leaders that met in Cairns earlier this month, agreed that Fiji will be left out of the PACER Plus negotiations until it rejoins the Pacific Islands Forum.
“As decided by the Forum Leaders in Cairns, the PACER Plus negotiations will involve at the outset: Australia, the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu,” Simon Crean, Australia’s trade minister told the Australian parliament on Aug. 18.
“PACER Plus is a Pacific Islands Forum initiative, and so it must have due regard for the leaders’ decision in January of this year in Port Moresby to suspend Fiji from Pacific Islands Forum activities if a timetable for a return to democracy was not established by May 1 — a decision reinforced by forum leaders in Cairns two weeks ago,” he said.
Fiji will be informed of the status of the negotiations through a mechanism approved by the Forum.
“Leaders agreed that Fijian officials would be kept engaged and informed of the negotiations following each negotiation meeting by a representative from that meeting, with the representative also able to convey back to the next negotiation meeting any views from Fiji.”
The Suva meeting also commended Vanuatu for its proposal for a reconciliation process which would pave the way for open and genuine dialogue amongst Leaders at all levels of Fijian society towards promoting the principles and practices of democracy.
“The proposal aims to build commitment and capacity for genuine dialogue and reconciliation amongst the population in Fiji, said the outcomes document.
The meeting welcomed Fiji’s establishment of a new Strategic Framework for Change Co-ordination Office which will facilitate consensus-building through nation-wide reconciliation and dialogue.
