Papua New Guinea has withdrawn its threat to pull out from the Multilateral Treaty on Fisheries it signed with Pacific nation States including the powerful United States.
This was announced by the Minister for Trade, Commerce and Industry, Charles Abel, yesterday citing major repercussions for smaller Island States had PNG gone ahead with its withdrawal.
His announcement also follows a meeting held with the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, James Loi, on the areas of the negotiations relating to the threat and the Pacific Islands plenary meeting in Fiji.
On return Mr. Abel expressed satisfaction with the level of negotiations regarding the treaty.
On the meeting with Mr. Loi Mr Abel said the subject of discussions was primarily PNG’s terms for withdrawing its notice of discontinuation from the treaty.
“If PNG did not withdraw the notice, the Treaty would collapse on May 14, 2012, which will have serious repercussions on smaller islands States who are signatories to the Treaty,†Mr. Abel said.
“It would also affect relations with the US. PNG gave notice in May last year because it was not happy with the financial and other terms of the treaty.â€
Mr. Abel said he was pleased with the frank attitude of the US which had resulted in their acceptance of PNG’s request to increase access fees for the 2012 fishing period by USD 24 million to USD 45 million based on a benchmark price of USD 5000 per day for a normal 9000 fishing days.
He said he was also content with the explicit recognition that the new financial terms of the treaty would be based on fair commercial value including a premium for multilateral access to the Pacific fishing grounds. These were the terms for the withdrawal of our notice,†Mr. Abel said.
Mr. Abel said the parties would now have a further 12 months to establish a clear and transparent pricing mechanism.
“In acting to preserve the treaty, PNG is keeping the regional interests of Pacific Island parties in mind, especially that of smaller Island states who very heavily rely on the fees as their major source of revenue,†he said.
“Tuna is a multi-billion dollar resource for which we will not realize full value until it is processed on-shore. This is the subject of other aspects of the US Treaty and other government initiatives such as the PMIZ in Madang.â€
