All the latest on Trade Issues facing the Pacific Islands

Stand Strong - 2007 Pacific Regional CSO Forum delivers a message to Pacific  leaders

October 15 - 'The EPA is about Free Trade, not Development'
PANG Coordinator Roshni Sami delivered a rousing speech to the Pacific NGOs annual forum. Her presentation to the 2007 Pacific Regional Civil Society Organisation Forum, in Tonga, focussed on the implications of Free Trade for the Pacific, especially the current negotiations for a new Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the EU. (October 15, 2007). See full text of her speech here...

7 October 2007 Press Release: Watch Out for Circling Sharks
“Pacific trade negotiators have been warned to be wary of devastating implications for trade with Australia and New Zealand – in negotiations for a new trade agreement with the European Union.
Trade watchdog, Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG), says an interim trading arrangement proposed by Pacific and EU Ministers in Brussels this week could trigger free trade negotiations with the Pacific’s biggest neighbours.  The interim trading arrangement would cover some issues in trade negotiations for a new Economic Partnership Agreement between Pacific countries and the EU, including goods, and leave other matters to be negotiated by the end of 2008.” 
Read More...

27 September 2007 Press Release: Make Trade Fair - Lift the Kava Bans
"Today, fair trade advocates in the Pacific joined campaigners, workers, farmers and activists around the world to call on the European Union (EU) to stop bullying African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) nations into signing an unfair Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA).
In Suva, regional fair trade organisation Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG) organised a symbolic kava ceremony to highlight the potentially damaging impact of unfair trade deals on Pacific people.  PANG invited representatives from the EU, spokespeople from the local kava industry, and fair trade advocates from concerned civil-society organisations to sit around the kava bowl (tanoa) to discuss concerns about the EPA negotiations and the ongoing ban on kava products in Europe." Read more...

27 September 2007 PANG Official Paper on the European Kava Bans
"Kava has a long history of safe use in the islands of the South Pacific as a ceremonial and social drink. During the late 1990s, kava became an important export product for the Pacific Island Countries (PICs) when kava-products were sold internationally as food-supplement and pharmaceutical products. The industry was worth around $US200 million each year to the PICs.  In 2002, countries in the European Union, led by Germany, imposed bans on kava-products which crippled the Pacific Island export industry. As indicated in this paper, the bans on kava products are unfair and discriminatory – especially with the release of a World Health Organisation report earlier this year indicating how kava products can be safely sold into Europe.  The Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG) is calling on the EU to stop destroying a vibrant Pacific export industry and to allow the sale of kava-products, following World Health Organisation guidelines."
Read PANG’s Official Paper on the European Kava Bans…

Past News
PANG Press Releases 'from the vault'

18 April 2007 Stop EPA Day

19 December 2006 EU Bully Tactics

30 October 2006 NZ Work Scheme a "Mutton Flap Gesture"

25 October 2006 Are Our Trade Negotiators Hypocrites

PANG in the Media
As a fair trade campaigning organisation, PANG aims to disseminate considered analysis of trade issues as widely as possible through local, regional and international media channels , as well as through presentations to conferences, trade workshops, university seminars etc.  PANG appears regularly in newspapers, magazines, radio, on television and on the World Wide Web.  In the past month media releases and comments from PANG have appeared in:

See here for a full list of recent media appearances.