Page 30 - IB June 2020

Opinion Opinion

The diversity of Pacific Island nations can breed indifference towards regional integration, especially if national develop-
ment and economic growth are already proving difficult to sustain.
DELVING INTO PICTA

By Ambassador Kaliopate Tavola each category.
From historical, geographical and other related lenses,
In the last issue of Islands Business, I discussed the abysmal the PICTA signatory countries – with exception of Papua New
state of the Pacific Island Countries Trade Agreement (PICTA) Guinea (PNG) are all small island developing states (SIDS),
and concluded that there was indifference in the way signa- with small economies characterised by lack of resources that
tory countries have regarded and treated this trade agree- give rise, for example, to rent-seeking. Capacity is clearly a
ment. This article further pursues this matter to try to find constraint. All are recipients of overseas development assis-
out what is really going on and what lies behind the surface of tance (ODA). On a per capita basis, the region as a recipient
the immediate problem. of ODA scores very highly.
I wanted therefore to use a political economy analysis (PEA) When it comes to the acquisition of imported resources,
to get behind the scene. My search for any PEA of PICTA or of these SIDS are constrained by the quantity and range of
Pacific Island Countries (PICs)/Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in exports and thus by their ability to purchase their imports.
general was unrewarded. The Pacific region lacks the depth of They are further constrained by the tyranny of distance. Their
analysis and research that other regions take for granted. relatively low degree of integration into the global economy
I searched elsewhere for a guide. I was rewarded with a restricts them from taking full advantage of various trade
PEA of regional integration in Africa’s East African Community concessions, preferences and incentives that are available to
(EAC) with its finding pointing directly to the twin shortages them.
of ‘political will’ and ‘capacity’ as being responsible for ob- On the other hand, PNG and Nauru have/have had rela-
structing regional integration. tively large mineral resources. However, there is evidence of
I opted therefore to use the finding as first basis of my Resource Curse and Dutch disease. The abuse and mismanage-
own attempt at a PEA of PICTA. I figured out that if these ment of the economy resulting from them tend be linked to
twin shortages were obstructing regional integration in EAC, capacity constraint and thus underdevelopment generally.
they are likely to be doing the same with the more specific As regards the shortage of political will, the evidence also
regional economic integration driven by a trade agreement. speaks for itself. The most prominent lens that irrefutably
And, given therefore, the similarities in developmental status points to lack of political will is what can be referred to as
of the EAC and PICs – comprising both developing and least ‘rules of the game’. That is that Pacific regionalism is - gener-
developed countries, it can be concluded that those twin ally speaking, voluntary. Leaders and ministers who readily
shortages would also apply to regional economic integration make decisions at the regional level are not obliged legally
involving PICs. to comply and implement those decisions - either at national
On reflection, such a methodology and its deductive conclu- or regional levels. Furthermore, there is no political cost
sion is not far off the mark. The shortages of political will and for non-compliance. Ministers do not lose their jobs for not
capacity resonate loudly with Pacific regionalism. For exam- implementing those decisions. This has contributed directly
ple, regional commentators, from time to time, have identi- to the growing implementation gaps that characterise Pacific
fied shortage of political will to explain the wide implementa- regionalism.
tion gap regarding decisions reached by regional leaders. As This situation has changed somewhat under the Biketawa
regards capacity, a paper tabled at the ‘What We Can Learn’ Declaration when it comes to regional security. It should be
regional symposium of 2012 stated: “….capacity is a key noted that it was under the provision of this Declaration that
constraint both to policy development and policy implemen- Fiji was suspended from PIF in 2009. However, there are other
tation……Building capacity is at the top of all our priorities. It lenses that bring up the same evidence of lack of political
is however a long-term issue.” will.
Having come this far, I opted to apply a PEA to PICTA and The 14 PICTA signatory countries belong to four sub-regional
of related regional economic integration, albeit, in a non- groupings, viz: Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), Polyne-
rigorous manner. Political economists have their own tool for sian Leaders Group, Micronesian Chief Executives Summit
PEA – a five lenses framework, with series of sub-lenses under and the Smaller Island States (SIS). Five of these signatory

30 Islands Business, June 2020