The Pacific Islands Forum is an inter-governmental consultative organ which aims to enhance cooperation between the independent countries of the Pacific Ocean and represent their interests. It was founded in 1971 as the South Pacific Forum; the name was changed in 2000 to better reflect the correct geographic locations of its member states both in the north and south Pacific.
Member states are: Australia, the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
The decisions of the Forum are implemented by the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS), which grew out of the South Pacific Economic Cooperation bureau (SPEC). As well as its role in harmonising regional positions on various political and policy issues, the Forum Secretariat has technical programmes in economic development, transport and trade, and chairs the Council of Regional Organisations in the Pacific (CROP).
New Zealand and Australia are much larger in population (with the exception of Papua New Guinea) and wealthier than the other small, poor, and in some cases outright impoverished island nations that make up the rest of the forum. They are significant aid donors and big markets for exports (for instance, through a concessional tariff deal on textiles exports from Fiji to Australia). Australia's population is around twice that of the other 15 members combined and it's economy more than five times larger. In Papua New Guinea (in Bougainville) and the Solomons, Australian and New Zealand have recently conducted peacekeeping/stabilization military operations. These military assistance/intervention are legitimized by the Biketawa Declaration, which was adopted at the 31st Summit of Pacific Islands Forum, held at Kiribati in October 2000.
The aim of Pacific Regional Trade Agreement is to boost trade between the island nations of the Pacific. Australia and New Zealand are associate members of PARTA.
See also
External link
The content of this page is retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Regional_Trade_Agreement under GFDL
