PANG is calling NZ’s seasonal work scheme a “mutton-flap gesture.”
“This scheme is little more than being offered the ‘mutton-flaps’ of the NZ job market” said a PANG representative in Fiji today. “What we need is substantive development in Pacific economies. We need to up-skill our work force and be able to set up value-added production in our own countries; not merely export raw materials or unskilled labour.” On the last day of the 37th Pacific Islands Forum, Helen Clark announced a seasonal work scheme to allow up to 5000 Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu nationals to work for up to seven months in the New Zealand horticulture sector. However, work opportunities will depend on NZ labour shortages and NZ horticulture industry needs; not the needs of the Pacific.
“New Zealand’s seasonal work scheme is fools gold, because it does not address any of the underlying causes of the economic problems that Pacific economies are currently facing, furthermore it must not be seen as a potential benefit under PACER. There is a huge imbalance in free-market globalisation because labour cannot move with the same freedom that capital can.
This work scheme from NZ is by no means the labour mobility plan that Pacific policy makers want, nor should we assume that labour mobility will provide the economic solutions Pacific Island people need” said a PANG representative.
“We should see this scheme for what it is: We’ve been thrown a politically strategic bone to ease Pacific policy-maker angst over unemployment due to the surplus of semi- and unskilled labour. In reality 5000 jobs across six countries for only seven months will ease nothing! It’s a joke, yet Fiji’s Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase and Minister of Foreign Affairs and External Trade Kaliopate Tavola have said they are ‘pleased’”.
Exporting a miniscule fraction of our semi- and unskilled labour is a bandaid, not an economic policy that will lead to substantive growth. It accentuates the dependency that we have on first world nations through the remittances cycle, as it does not create jobs, rather it disguises the lack of economic opportunities in our own countries. At the end of the day a job created in a Pacific Island country is better than a temporary, minimum wage, low-skill job in New Zealand.
http://www.pang.org.fj/doc/PR061030muttonflapjobs.pdf
Showing posts with label Pacific Network on Globalisation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pacific Network on Globalisation. Show all posts
4/27/07
Pacific challenges EU over trade negotiations
1233 FJT
Friday, April 27, 2007
Update: 12.33pm THE European Union has been challenged to either negotiate a trade deal in the Pacific that is to the benefit of the Pacific's people or to offer alternatives that are at least as good as the current trade regime.
The challenge was put to the EU this week at the Pacific Trade and Education Program by participants from Pacific civil society groups, in Apia, Samoa.
Chief executive officer of Samoa Umbrella for Non Governmental Organisations (SUNGO), Roina Vavatau, took a swipe at the EU, saying it has failed to live up to its rhetoric that the Economic Partnership Agreement should be an instrument for development.
'' Despite repeated letters over the past nine months, the EU has still so far failed to respond constructively to the Pacifics proposals. It is ridiculous that they are still insisting on a deadline for conclusion of negotiations by the end of this year,'' Ms Vavatau said.
Participants agreed with the Mid-Term Review of the EPA negotiations commissioned by the Pacific Trade Ministers, using a highly respected European research institute, which concluded that the Pacific and EU were still far apart in negotiations and that the Pacific was not ready to conclude a deal by the end of the year.
The review laid much of the responsibility at the feet of the EU, criticising their insistence on an inflexible free trade agreement.
The WTO waiver granted to the Cotonou Partnership Agreement expires on 31st December 2007.
This deadline only applies to trade in goods.
Negotiations on other aspects, in particular the complex issues of services, can be concluded when the Pacific region is ready, when adequate research, impact assessment and consultations are undertaken.
The chairperson of the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG), Fe'iloakitau Kaho Tevi said the EU is playing negotiating games and he finds these negotiating tactics unacceptable.
''It is unacceptable to risk peoples livelihoods, vital jobs for young people and the future sustainability of Pacific societies in the course of negotiating a trade agreement that is supposedly in the development interests of the Pacific Island countries.'' Mr Tevi said.
The meeting which concluded on Wednesday has reiterated the concerns expressed by over a hundred Pacific civil society groups over the likely social, cultural, gender, environmental and economic impacts of an EPA Agreement.
The participants have called for suspension of further negotiations between the Pacific and the EU until the results of the recently initiated social impact assessment are fully incorporated into negotiating positions.
Friday, April 27, 2007
Update: 12.33pm THE European Union has been challenged to either negotiate a trade deal in the Pacific that is to the benefit of the Pacific's people or to offer alternatives that are at least as good as the current trade regime.
The challenge was put to the EU this week at the Pacific Trade and Education Program by participants from Pacific civil society groups, in Apia, Samoa.
Chief executive officer of Samoa Umbrella for Non Governmental Organisations (SUNGO), Roina Vavatau, took a swipe at the EU, saying it has failed to live up to its rhetoric that the Economic Partnership Agreement should be an instrument for development.
'' Despite repeated letters over the past nine months, the EU has still so far failed to respond constructively to the Pacifics proposals. It is ridiculous that they are still insisting on a deadline for conclusion of negotiations by the end of this year,'' Ms Vavatau said.
Participants agreed with the Mid-Term Review of the EPA negotiations commissioned by the Pacific Trade Ministers, using a highly respected European research institute, which concluded that the Pacific and EU were still far apart in negotiations and that the Pacific was not ready to conclude a deal by the end of the year.
The review laid much of the responsibility at the feet of the EU, criticising their insistence on an inflexible free trade agreement.
The WTO waiver granted to the Cotonou Partnership Agreement expires on 31st December 2007.
This deadline only applies to trade in goods.
Negotiations on other aspects, in particular the complex issues of services, can be concluded when the Pacific region is ready, when adequate research, impact assessment and consultations are undertaken.
The chairperson of the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG), Fe'iloakitau Kaho Tevi said the EU is playing negotiating games and he finds these negotiating tactics unacceptable.
''It is unacceptable to risk peoples livelihoods, vital jobs for young people and the future sustainability of Pacific societies in the course of negotiating a trade agreement that is supposedly in the development interests of the Pacific Island countries.'' Mr Tevi said.
The meeting which concluded on Wednesday has reiterated the concerns expressed by over a hundred Pacific civil society groups over the likely social, cultural, gender, environmental and economic impacts of an EPA Agreement.
The participants have called for suspension of further negotiations between the Pacific and the EU until the results of the recently initiated social impact assessment are fully incorporated into negotiating positions.
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