Brussels, 01/07/2004 (Agence Europe) - This week, the 14 island States of the Pacific Forum, which are also members of the ACP group (Africa/Caribbean/Pacific) and partners of the EU under the Cotonou agreement, opened their permanent representation to the World Trade Organisation in Geneva. The European Development Fund put 280,000 EUR into the funding of this bureau, which will help the small island States to take part in multilateral trade negotiations. In a press release, Pascal Lamy has welcomed the move: "WTO negotiations must be accessible to all, including the smaller members with their particular needs and constraints. Setting up the Pacific bureau will help the region to be better represented at the WTO. This will also boost the active involvement of the small, economically vulnerable island States in our joint efforts to push the Doha Development Agenda".
The fourteen island States are: the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Papua-New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. Only Fiji, Papua-New Guinea and the Solomon Islands are presently WTO members. Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu have observer status. None of them previously had any permanent representation in Geneva.