Png was anything but satisfied with this result. An accelerated admission in 1974, a year before its independence, reassured but did not remove a feeling of Melanesian complaint about the Polynesian bias of the Forum. The history of the PIF, which has maintained flexibility and established its own rules as an association of leaders rather than as an official international treaty organization, is at the heart of the anger of Micronesian states over the violation of the «gentlemen`s agreement» on the selection of the PIF Secretary General. A few decades later, SPEC gradually assumed more responsibilities for the Forum, so that in 1988 it was officially renamed the Secretariat of the South Pacific Forum. Significantly, the 2005 agreement reversed the 1972 decision not to formalize meetings of heads of state and government by establishing the Forum as an international organization with the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat as an administrative body. Contrary to some suggestions, spec was not intended to serve as a secretariat, nor to give a new name to the Pacific Islands Producers Association (PIPA) of the 1960s. PIPA was formally integrated into SPEC in 1974 and SPEC was given only a limited secretariat role in organizing annual leaders` meetings in 1975. Political questions about belonging to the two French territories are also raised. They were allowed to participate as «governments» (including voting rights) under the 2000 agreement. The 2005 treaty specifies «states» rather than «governments.» From 5 to 7. In August 1971, the first meeting of the South Pacific Forum was initiated by New Zealand and was held in Wellington, New Zealand, with participants from the following seven countries: the President of Nauru, the Prime Ministers of Western Samoa, Tonga and Fiji, the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands, the Australian Minister for Foreign Territories and the Prime Minister of New Zealand.
It was a private and informal discussion on a wide range of topics of common interest, focusing on issues that directly affected the daily lives of the inhabitants of the South Pacific islands, paying particular attention to trade, navigation, tourism and education. Subsequently, this meeting took place each year in the Member States and territories in turn. In 1999, the 30th South Pacific Forum decided to rename the organization Pacific Islands Forum to better reflect areas outside the South Pacific. Immediately following the annual meeting of the Forum at the level of Heads of Government, the Post-Forum Dialogue (PFD) is held at ministerial level with PFD development partners around the world. [5] A second challenge for the 1972 Forum meeting was to increase the number of members. Niue and the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony were plausible candidates because of their pipa membership. Australia wishes to support the admission of Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea hoped, given the apparent inconsistency of having the Cook Islands as a founding member of the forum (although it is not completely independent), to oppose the other pipa members Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony and Niue. A negotiated decision concluded that none of the three had technically achieved «final political status», but through their agreement on free association with New Zealand, the Cook Islands. This bold decision became the 2005 agreement that the WSF may have tried to terminate prematurely. A treaty formalising these amendments and replacing the SPEC Agreement was drawn up in 1991 and entered into force in 1993. That treaty was replaced in 2000 by a new instrument that changed the names of the Forum and the Secretariat to recognize accession north of the equator, as the Pacific Community had done in 1997.
If the 2005 agreement enters into force with Fiji`s ratification certificate, regional turbulence could seriously intensify. Both the Australian and New Zealand business communities have called for the Régie (Closer Economic Relations) to be extended to other Pacific island states, moving towards a single market and allowing for the free movement of people and goods. A Pacific Union has been theorized as the next step in the Forum. A review of the High-level Panel in 2004 revealed that the 2000 Secretariat Agreement was «outdated» and recommended the drafting of a new treaty. It was not signed by Palau or the Marshall Islands. All signatory states have ratified the treaty, with the exception of Micronesia. In March 2008, six countries announced that national arrangements had been made to allow them to trade under the agreement:[26] Cook Islands, Fiji, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands[27], Vanuatu. [28] Following the entry into force of the trade agreement, countries commit to lifting tariffs on most goods by 2021. Since April 2008, the Forum Island States have also been negotiating an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union. It is important to note that the PICTA discussed here covers only trade in goods.
At the Forum`s Island Leaders` Meeting held on 28 August 2012 in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, nine members signed the Pacific Island Trade Agreement on Trade in Services (PICTA TIS). [29] Negotiations have been ongoing since April 2008 to develop and agree on a protocol to include trade in services and the temporary free movement of natural persons (a broader approach than mode 4 of the GATS). [30] The error was possible because there are two treaties, but only one – the 2000 treaty establishing the FIP Secretariat – is in force. .