The Fiji Commerce and Employers Federation (FCEF) on Monday convened a focused Expert Corner session to unpack the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations Plus (PACER Plus), bringing fresh technical scrutiny to a debate that will shape Fiji’s trade path. Led by trade expert and former permanent secretary Shaheen Ali, the private‑sector forum highlighted the potential costs and benefits of the pact at a moment when Fiji remains one of only two Pacific Island countries — alongside Papua New Guinea — yet to sign the agreement in its current form.
FCEF president Eldon Eastgate said the session was intended to lift the private sector’s understanding of the deal’s mechanics and implications. “PACER Plus is a significant agreement and Fiji’s engagement with it will shape our economic environment for decades,” he told members, stressing the federation’s role in equipping businesses to participate in national deliberations. FCEF signalled it will continue the conversation with follow‑up events and engagement with government and industry stakeholders.
What makes this session particularly timely are the Trade Ministry’s headline figures for 2025 disclosed during the discussion: exports of about $2.53 billion against imports of $7.38 billion, leaving a persistent trade deficit of $4.85 billion. Bilateral shortfalls with Australia and New Zealand alone exceed $1.7 billion. Ali and other speakers used those numbers to argue that the central challenge for Fiji is structural — a narrow export base and limited capacity to scale into more diversified, higher‑value goods and services — rather than lack of market access per se.
PACER Plus, Ali explained, does not expand access beyond the largely duty‑free and quota‑free entry Fiji already enjoys through arrangements such as SPARTECA and other preference schemes. Instead, it binds members into reciprocal obligations on tariffs, rules of origin, services and investment that may limit future policy space. He emphasised that clauses such as Most Favoured Nation (MFN) commitments and reciprocity require careful design and sequencing, alongside robust support arrangements, if Fiji is to secure net gains.
Ali argued the right approach is not rejection but strategic engagement: negotiating safeguards, transitional support and capacity building that address Fiji’s competitiveness constraints. He pointed to existing bilateral cooperation frameworks — the Vuvale Partnership with Australia and the Duavata Partnership with New Zealand — as foundations that could be leveraged to deliver practical assistance in areas like supply‑chain upgrading, standards compliance and labour mobility.
The meeting underscored the private sector’s insistence on a “whole‑of‑country” process, where government, business, unions and development partners coordinate on what trade liberalisation would mean in practice. With consultations and technical reviews already under way in previous months, Monday’s session represents the latest development in a broader national debate about whether, when and on what terms Fiji should sign PACER Plus. For exporters and policymakers, the immediate task is translating technical treaty provisions into realistic programmes that can close the gap between market access on paper and competitiveness at scale.