Civil Society Organisations from across the region and Australia and New Zealand have long held concerns about the impacts of PACER-Plus and those concerns appear well founded given the assessment in Defending Pacific Ways of Life: A Social Impact Assessment of PACER-Plus. International organisations that have worked on other free trade agreements have also expressed concern that the outcomes of the agreement would more likely benefit Australia and New Zealand investors not Pacific Island peoples.
For those who are interested in concerns about binding trade agreements, the chapters on services (by Prof Jane Kelsey a leading critic of free trade agreements based at Auckland University), on the right to food and food security (by Dr Jagjit Plahe and Wendell Cornwall of Monash University, Melbourne) and on Health impacts (by Dr Deborah Gleeson of La Trobe University, Melbourne) provide excellent analyses of the implications of PP for Pacific economies/societies/states.
Dr Claire Slatter, DAWN’s Chair, wrote the critique of the Office of the Chief Trade Advisor’s commissioned Social Impact Assessment for PANG, the SIA is seen as a last minute attempt to quieten the voices of civil society but it lacks independence, contains poor methodology process and fails to adequately address the gender impacts.
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