Simon Crean
I am an enthusiastic supporter of the PACER Plus regional economic initiative, which seeks to build on the existing Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations (PACER)—because I believe it can provide tremendous opportunities for the Pacific.  
Pacific Islands Forum Leaders reaffirmed the continuing importance of pursuing greater economic integration and trade as a regional priority at the Forum held in Niue last August. In fact, Leaders decided in 2008 that a detailed roadmap on PACER Plus should be prepared, with the view to Leaders agreeing at the 2009 Forum to the commencement of negotiations.
I believe that by working together through PACER Plus, we can help improve skills in the region to enable Pacific-sourced goods and services to be exported around the world, and be ready to grow strongly as the economic situation improves.
If PACER Plus is to result in tangible outcomes for the region and achieve sustainable economic growth, there must be political leadership shown and I am confident that by working together we can do it.
Australia’s motives
It is of concern to me that Australia’s motives in supporting regional trade liberalisation via PACER Plus have been misrepresented. I want to make it clear that we support the PACER Plus regional initiative because we believe that individual Pacific islands countries will benefit from it.
Quite frankly from the point of view of trade, Australia is not primarily pursuing the PACER Plus agreement from the perspective of its commercial benefit. Australia’s primary objective with PACER Plus is a more sustainable and prosperous Pacific—an aspiration that we all share.
This objective is borne out of all of the evidence that demonstrates that prosperity can be secured by countries engaging effectively in trade.
We see trade as an opportunity, not as a threat. But we also see PACER Plus as part of a broader commitment to building the strength and capacity of our region.
In early 2008, the Australian Government signalled a commitment to a new era of cooperation with the Pacific, working in partnership with the countries of the Pacific to promote stability and growth.
The Pacific Partnerships for Development are a key feature of this new era of cooperation. Australia has now signed Pacific Partnerships for Development with Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Kiribati.  
Through these partnerships, Australia and signatory countries jointly commit to achieving improvements across priority sectors such as public infrastructure, health, education and governance.
However, we believe more can be done to strengthen individual economies.
Enhancing economic
opportunities in the region
The concept of trade underpinning growth is an essential component of what Prime Minister Rudd called ‘a new era of cooperation with the islands nations of the Pacific’, in his landmark Port Moresby Declaration last March.
Increasing trade flows is an important part of enhancing economic opportunities in the Pacific. But this isn’t a new idea. Australia’s economic growth has been enhanced by engaging with the global community through international trade.
Australia’s population and level of industrial development is not sufficient to generate the standard of living we enjoy. It is only through accessing a large global market that we can sustain our way of life.  
Engaging with the global economy presents challenges, but it also presents enormous opportunities to generate greater prosperity. Trade stimulates the economy, offering our people greater choice in goods and services, improving competition and creating jobs.
We see trade and trade-related structural adjustment as a critical part of building economically viable and sustainable economies. Our own experience demonstrates this—but there are other examples in our region too. What has been done in the Cook Islands to replace tariff revenue and telecommunication and aviation liberalisation in Vanuatu are both good examples of the benefits of domestic reform to improve competitiveness.
But engagement with trade isn’t just about opening markets—it’s about ensuring that nations are competitive enough and productive enough to take advantage of liberalisation.
 The Pacific already has access to the markets of Australia and New Zealand through SPARTECA. But it is structural adjustments and domestic reforms that will really enable the Pacific to take greater advantage of this market access, and that is where we envisage the development assistance element of PACER Plus will be able to provide real gains.
PACER Plus will be very different from other trade or economic cooperation agreements in which the Pacific islands countries have participated. I would like us to work together as a region to avoid the tensions that have arisen in some of those other negotiations.  
Australia wants to work with our Pacific neighbours to maximise the opportunities which come from greater levels of international trade, investment and capacity building in order to build stronger economies and stronger communities in the Pacific.

• Simon Crean is the Australian Minister for Trade.