COUNTRY REPORT REPUBLIC OF FIJI ISLAND

Transcription

1 COUNTRY REPORT REPUBLIC OF FIJI ISLAND INTRODUCTION Fiji is located in the South Pacific. The population of Fiji is about 850,000, consisting of two major ethnic groups, Fijians and the Indo-Fijians, Rotumans, Chinese and other ethnic groups are in minority. The economy is depended on the Sugarcane Farming and the Tourism Industry. TRADE AGREEMENTS Since Fiji s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1996, the Government has adopted an export oriented and outward-looking trade policy. The WTO provides secure and predictable market access to more than 153 Members. It helps Fiji pursue free trade and minimize trade distortions. In this context, Fiji has gradually liberalized its trade and reduced import restrictions in favour of export promotion, and this has resulted in increased volumes of exports and imports. The more open trading approach has led to increased prosperity and opportunities in the economy, creating thousands of jobs in industries like tourism. Over the years, the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS) has been one of the regional organizations playing a vital role in promoting regional integration. PIFS developed a key document, the Pacific Plan, which is instrumental in strengthening regional cooperation and integration and was adopted by Leaders in The goal of the Pacific Plan is to enhance and stimulate economic growth, sustainable development, good governance and security for the Pacific countries through regionalism. With regards to economic growth, PIFS is coordinating regional policies on regional and international trade, private sector development, aviation, marine transport, information and communication technologies (ICT) and energy amongst other things. PIFS has gradually developed into a regional organization for coordinating external policies and strengthening regional cooperation and integration. Aside from the WTO, Fiji is also a party to a number of regional trade agreements. Fiji views regional integration as a key stepping stone towards fuller participation in the increasingly liberalized global economy. As an island country with a small market, regional integration plays a vital role in creating a larger trade and investment market for Fiji. Some of the trade agreements to which Fiji is a party include: The Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) Trade Agreement which is a free trade agreement that allows trade to take place freely between Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands; The Pacific Island Countries Trade Agreement (PICTA), which seeks to establish a free trade area among the fourteen Forum Island Countries (FICs). The Interim Economic Partnership Agreement (IEPA) which by Fiji and Papua New Guinea, and the European Community and signed by Fiji in December The IEPA provides duty free and quota free market access on all products from Fiji except for sugar and rice, which are subjected to longer transitional periods. Most importantly, the IEPA also provides for improved rules of origin, especially in fisheries, and this allows investors based in Fiji to use fish caught using any boats (global sourcing) and export it to the EU, provided that the fish is landed and processed

2 (canned) in Fiji. Fiji is still negotiating a comprehensive EPA in order to deepen its trade relationship with the EU over time; The South Pacific Regional Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement (SPARTECA), which is a non-reciprocal agreement that allows Fiji and other Forum Island Countries (FICs) to export almost all of their products to Australia and New Zealand duty free. Fiji also benefits from the SPARTECA-TCF Scheme which allows its textiles, clothing and footwear (except wool and wool blend fabrics) to be exported to Australia duty free under more favourable rules of origin; The Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations (PACER), which is a framework agreement for cooperation on trade and economic integration between the fourteen FICs and Australia and New Zealand, with a view towards the development of a single regional market. It also provides for assistance to FICs including Fiji, to enable them to address customs matters, standards and conformance and quarantine issues. The involvement of Fiji in these arrangements shows that the Government is fully committed to trade liberalization. This will help enhance the volume of Fiji s trade with its regional trading partners as well as the rest of the world. Fiji is also trying to diversify its trading markets by engaging with other neighbouring developing countries under the South-South Cooperation. The South-South Cooperation seeks to promote economic and technical cooperation among developing countries and is an important complement to North-South cooperation. The role of technical cooperation among developing countries for industrial development is widely recognized. The growing importance of developing countries in world trade is associated with a sharp rise in manufactured exports and an increasing role of South-South trade in commodities and manufactures. Fiji contributes towards South South Cooperation through its exports, exchange of resources, technology, and institutional capacity building through training and other exchanges with other developing countries in the South Pacific region. Fiji is also negotiating trade agreements such as the comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union and this has implications on a wide range of policies and businesses. Once signed, the final agreement is a legally binding international treaty. Therefore, it is important that all stakeholders are aware of how this impacts them before the decision on the final agreement is made. In order to achieve the above-mentioned objectives, Fiji will consider strengthening the consultative mechanisms such as the existing Trade and Development Committee (TDC) that is coordinated by the Ministry of Industry and Trade to ensure that it is fully representative and adequately resourced to carry its functions and provide quality and timely trade policy advice to the Government on all trade policy issues The Ministry of Industry and Trade is vested with the responsibility to foster close and co-operative relations with Fiji's trading partners to protect and advance its specific political, commercial, investment and strategic interests with a particular focus on trade and economic opportunities. Fiji adopts a multi-approach to trade and is signatory to a number of bilateral, regional and multilateral trading agreements.

3 Bilaterally, Fiji has adopted a two-facet approach. Firstly, Fiji would enter into nonreciprocal agreements with small island states and secondly Fiji has negotiated reciprocally with larger trading partners that have the capacity to trade with Fiji on an equal footing. Since 1995 Fiji has a non-reciprocal Bilateral Trade Agreement with Tonga. These non-reciprocal concessions have been extended to Tuvalu and the Cook Islands through a BTS signed on 1st October in Funafuti and in Suva on 23rd October Fiji has also signed full reciprocal BTA s with the more developed partners in the region. These are as follows: Fiji-PNG BTA was signed in 1996 Fiji Vanuatu BTA was signed in 1998 Fiji Australia Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement were signed in 11 March Fiji USA Bilateral Textile Agreement that was signed in Fiji China BTA was signed in 1997 Fiji is further looking at opportunities through the Look-North Policy to extend its trade and have a Bilateral Trade Agreements with countries such as Russia, Turkey and the prominent Asian Markets such as Malaysia, Indonesia, China and India. It is envisaged that the Bilateral Trade Agreements benefit Fiji in the following ways: Ensures market access through free flow of goods; Ensures countries develop quarantine standards and customs arrangements that facilitate trade between parties; Ensure fair competition between parties; Facilitates and encourages exchanges and interaction between the private sector of the two countries; Facilitates inter-change and movement of commercial and technical representatives between the two countries; Contributes to the harmonized development and expansion of world trade and to the progressive removal of barriers; and Contributes to the growth and development of both trading partner countries. STATE OF TRADE UNIONS IN FIJI The Fiji Trades Union Congress (FTUC) is a trade union organization in Fiji, originally founded in 1952 under the leadership of Pandit Ami Chandra as the Fiji Industrial Workers Congress (FIWC). As the FIWC the organisation was the third federation in Oceania, after the ACTU and the NZCTU, to join the ICFTU. In 1975 the FTUC's membership was 25,000. Currently, the FTUC is affiliated to the International Trade Union Confederation. It has a close relationship with the Fiji Labour Party. The FTUC has 30 trade union affiliates, covering the public and private sectors. Major affiliates include: the Fiji Public Service Association, the Fiji Teachers Union, the Fiji Sugar & General Workers Union, the National Union of Hospitality, Catering & Tourism Industries Employees and the National Union of Factory and Commercial Workers Union. In 2013 FTUC established the People's Democratic Party to contest the 2014 election

4 IMPACT OF UNILATERAL POLICY CHANGES Government has promulgated Decrees to curb the rights of the workers. The Essential National Industries Decree No. 35 of 2011 has eroded the rights of the Union to challenge in any court any decision of the government or government owned entities to make employees redundant or change any terms and conditions of work. Ceasation of check off Unions from the consultative process of the post processing. There is no transparency and many of the teachers are frustrated as they feel that the promotion process lacks transparency. The removal of appeals process by the government has left the public servants with no room for redress. Governments promulgation of Decree No. 21 has remove the rights of the Unions to challenge any decision of the government that it makes against the public service workers. INFORMAL ECONOMY WORKERS These workers remain unorganised and work long hours and are exploited by the employers. It is very difficult to get them Unionised as many of them are frightened that they would be victimised as soon as the employer comes to know about it. There is no fixed minimum wage and workers continue to be exploited. Working long hours with no overtime pay has become a norm. Manufacturing sector, including garment factory workers are the worst victims. However, there is provision for these workers to take their grievance with the Ministry of Labour and continue to suffer INITIATIVE OF TRADE UNIONS Fiji Trades Union Congress, the National Centre, continues to hold awareness workshops and programmes. The Centre has employed a fulltime officer to move out in the field and help organise the unorganised. There has also been the amalgamation of unions. This was done to strengthen the voice of the smaller unions to improve the service to the member. DIFFICULTIES IN ORGANISING THE INFORMAL SECTOR WORKERS The major difficulty is the unwillingness of the employers to cooperate. They do not want the workers to get unionised as they know that once organised they will have a voice and then it will be difficult to exploit the workers. So it is in the employer s interest that the workers remain ununionised. The other difficulty is that of the geographical set up of the country. It is difficult to visit the workers as they are scattered all over the country. FUTURE ACTIONS TO IMPROVE THE CONDITIONS OF THE INFORMAL ECONOMY WORKERS FTUC, the National Centre has employed a full time worker to visit the informal sectors and look at the possibility of organising them. The Centre is also educating the affiliates of the problem faced by

5 the informal sector worker and how the established unions can assist to improve the working conditions of these workers. The Compliance Unit of the Ministry of Labour has also been asked to make frequent visits to the factories and garages to check on the working conditions and the health issues. Under the law, there should not be any gender discrimination and the Unions frequently bring it to the attention of the enforcing agencies if any discrimination is noticed. CONCLUSION Fiji has a problem as far as the informal economy workers are concerned. The workers are underpaid for the work they carry out. I t also true that although the efforts to organised the unorganised workers in the informal economy are being made by trade unions, the majority of the workers remain unorganised, unrecognised an unprotected.