Pacific Union

Pacific Union
Potential Members of a Pacific Union
Potential Member states		16 Australia Cook Islands Federated States of Micronesia Fiji Kiribati Nauru New Zealand Niue Palau Papua New Guinea Marshall Islands Samoa Solomon Islands Tonga Tuvalu Vanuatu
Area
-	Total	13,962,549 km2  5,390,970 sq mi
GDP (PPP)		estimate
-	Total	$ billion
-	Per capita	$
Currency		12 Australian Dollar Cook Islands dollar² Fijian dollar Kiribati dollar¹ New Zealand Dollar Pa'anga Papua New Guinean kina Solomon Islands Dollar Samoan tala Tuvaluan dollar¹ US Dollar Vanuatu vatu 1 Pegged to Australian Dollar 2 Pegged to New Zealand Dollar

The Pacific Union is a proposed development of the Pacific Islands Forum, suggested in 2003 by a committee of the Australian Senate, into a political and economic intergovernmental community. The union, if formed, will have a common charter, institutions and currency. Although former Prime Minister of Australia John Howard spoke of a Pacific Union whilst in office, his government's emphasis was focused on bilateral relations and agreements with the individual states of the Forum.^{[citation needed]}

Existing integration

The most prominent example of pre-existing regionalism amongst countries of the Pacific Ocean is the Pacific Islands Forum, an intergovernmental organisation that aims to represent the interests of its members and enhance cooperation between them. The Pacific Islands Forum does not have a common charter, institutions and currency.

Closer Economic Relations (CER) free trade agreement between the governments of New Zealand and Australia allow the free trade of most goods and services between the two nations without the tariff barriers or export incentives. The Melanesian Spearhead Group is a more recent trade treaty governing the four Melanesian states of Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and recently, Fiji. The nations of Nauru, Kiribati and Tuvalu use the Australian dollar while the Cook Islands, Tokelau and Niue use the New Zealand Dollar

In October 2000, national leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum signed the Biketawa Declaration constituting a framework for coordinating response to regional crises leading to New Zealand and Australian military and police forces participating in regional peacekeeping/stabilisation operations in Papua New Guinea (in Bougainville), Solomon Islands (2003–present), Nauru (2004–present) and Tonga (2006).

Future prospects

There has been a call from within both the Australian and New Zealand business communities to extend the Closer Economic Relations (CER) Free Trade Agreement to other Pacific Island nations, moving towards a single market and allowing the free movement of people and goods. Harmonising both the CER and the Pacific Regional Trade Agreement (PARTA) is one possibility of moving towards this goal. The idea's future has become somewhat confused with the Rudd Government's call for an Asia-Pacific Community, which would have a wider membership than a Pacific Union.

See also

• Arab League
• Caribbean Community and Common Market
• Continental union
  • African Union
  • Central Asian Union
  • European Union
  • Latin American Integration Association
  • North American Union
    • Central American Integration System
    • North American Free Trade Agreement
  • Union of South American Nations
    • Mercosur

External links

• Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat
• The Pacific Plan

Articles, Editorials, and Reports

• Engaging our neighbours: Towards a new relationship between Australian and the Pacific Islands
• Beyond Cooperation: Towards an Oceanic Community
• Regional Integration in the Pacific
• Regionalism in the Pacific: A New Development Strategy
• Whose Oceania? Contending Visions of Community in Pacific Region-Building
• Australia's Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee (2003-08-12): A Pacific Engaged: Australia’s Relations with Papua New Guinea and the Island States of the South–West Pacific
• ABC (2003-08-12): Senate Calls for Pacific Community to Head Off Regional Crises
• The Age (2003-08-13): Call for EU-Style 'Pacific Community'
• ABC (2003-08-18): Australia Floats 'Pacific Union' Idea
• The Age (2003-08-18): Howard Push for Pacific Union
• The Age (2003-08-30): Time to Look at a Pacific Community
• Pacific Magazine (2004-03-01): A EU-Style Club For The Pacific?
• The Age (2004-03-06): Bold Plan for Pacific Unity
• The Age (2004-04-06): Pacific Forum Beckons EU-Style Links
• ABC (2004-04-06): Pacific Plan Expected to Fall Short of Total Union
• The Age (2004-04-07): Pacific Heads Back Region Unity Plan
• Pacific Economic Bulletin (2005 #3): Towards a Pacific Community
• The Age (2005-10-09): Pacific Plan Puts Howard to the Test
• Pacific Magazine (2005-10-17): ADB Calls for Pacific Plan Focus On Governance And Economic Opportunities
• Fiji (2005-11-02): Pacific Leaders Endorse Plan to Strengthen Regional Cooperation
• Labor eHerald (2006-05-04): A Vision of a Pacific Community
• ABC (2006-07-23): Urwin Calls for Pacific Settlement