Manoa Kamikamica, left, with Todd McClay at the New Zealand–Fiji Business Councils’ Annual Joint Conference. 11 September 2025
Photo: Facebook / Todd McClay MP
New Zealand is courting Fiji to join a regional free trade and partnership agreement, but Fijian government officials say the island nation will decide whether to join the agreement by the end of the year.
It was the elephant in the room at a talanoa of Kiwi and Pacific business leaders in Auckland and Wellington, hosted by the Fiji Trade Commission earlier this month.
Fiji’s Trade Minister Manoa Kamikamica, one of the three deputy prime ministers in Sitiveni Rabuka’s government, spent a week in Aotearoa, engaging an eager business community. He met with his New Zealand counterpart Todd McClay last Thursday.
Kamikamica spoke of a variety of opportunities; from bottled water to technology to mahogany wood forests, boasting a FJ$6b (approx. NZ$4.4b) investment pipeline into the country.
He said that around 84 projects – valued at FJ $2b (approx. NZ$1.5b) – were already under construction. That includes an information and communications technology (ICT) data facility in Viti Levu and two new undersea fibre-optic cables, courtesy of Google.
“I don’t think we’ve ever reached that level before,” he told the Wellington forum. “These are the types of quality investments that are happening,”
The forums painted an optimistic view of the island nation – almost enough to distract from the country’s reliance on tourism and remittances, or its recently declining economic growth rates.
That fledgling position is one that New Zealand and Australia, who forged the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations (PACER) Plus at the end of 2020, insist that the partnership is a solution to.
Businesses could shut down
Minister McClay, during his rendevous with Kamikamica, opined on Fiji’s distinguished place in the Aotearoa economy.
“From Tower Insurance’s 300-strong Suva hub to the Fijian taro, ginger, and tropical fruits now on New Zealand supermarket shelves, the message is clear: Fiji delivers skills, services, and products of real value to our market.”
When it came into force, PACER Plus slashed tariffs between Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Island signatories.
This presents a dilemma for Fiji: to join the country may have to slash import duties for Aussie and Kiwi goods, making them cheaper and able to outcompete local industry. It could also pave the way for labour mobility schemes that could worsen Fiji’s high-skill brain drain.
McClay’s plea to Fiji was that PACER Plus would unlock opportunities for their businesses, not lock them out of competition.
“With Fiji’s scale, infrastructure and reliability, that access would translate into a real competitive edge in key exports unique to your shores. In fact, one of my constituents has imported a significant amount of Fijian furniture made from coconut trees and domestic leather and fitted out his entire office,” he said.
McClay promised to be “reasonable and sensible” to reach an agreement that suits Fiji’s needs.
Kamikamica told RNZ Pacific that PACER Plus could be devastating in its current form.
“Liberalising may have an adverse impact… these are industries that employ quite a few thousand Fijians. That could potentially close down some of the businesses if we’re not careful.”
The government has a duty to protect Fijian industry from the threats of trade liberalisation, he said.
“You only gave to look at America and see how they’ve kind of gone the other way now. You do, somewhat, sympathise with them because they had a viable manufacturing base,” he noted.
The US, who are imposing a 15 percent tariff on Fijian goods, is the destination for 20 percent of what Fiji exports, Kamikamica said. And this, he said, is causing Fiji to shift their focus to other trading partners, out of necessity.
However, he is confident Fiji can negotiate it down.
“New Zealand are well aware of where Fiji is trying to head… there’s a myriad of opportunities in there that Australia and New Zealand can participate in.”
Fiji holding out for the rest of the year
Fiji made a “serious commitment” to consider joining PACER Plus in 2022. The head of the country’s Ministry for Trade Shaheen Ali gave RNZ Pacific a glimpse into Fiji’s position at the negotiating table.
“Fiji has been out of PACER Plus discussion and meetings for a while. There has been a renewed energy and interest since the new government had come in, where there was commitment given by Fiji to seriously look at PACER Plus.”
“What the industry wanted to see in Fiji is ‘what’s in it for them’… what extra benefits, market access, trade and investment opportunities they get.”
Ali said that, for them, this is a question that has yet to be answered. He expects a decision to be made by the end of the year on whether Fiji moves forward.
“There could be decisions made… that would sort of map out Fiji’s entry into PACER Plus.”
Fiji is less in need of this kind of agreement than other island nations, Ali said, adding that it gets by well on existing deals with Aotearoa, such as tariff information sharing and the longstanding Duavata Partnership.
Furthermore, the island has significant manufacturing and services base that could be threatened if opened up to competition.
“It becomes difficult because PACER Plus has already been agreed, so it’s difficult to make it flexible or do some amendments to accommodate Fiji because you have to consult all the other parties,” Ali said.
“We’ve also seen that Fiji is somewhat unique, as far as it’s industries are concerned, to other Pacific Island countries. There’s a number of manufacturing jobs that could be at stake, and even in the services sector and others.”
Ali said it means New Zealand have to offer more than just the status quo to entice Fiji
He added Fiji has broached New Zealand and Australia on new commitments outside of PACER, just to sweeten the deal.
“We’ll be looking to things like side letters and others to give Fiji businesses that level of comfort, that they won’t be impacted aversely. Fiji’s tariff entry is already covered, so we don’t get additional benefits, but Fiji is very interested in non-tariff barriers, things like quarantine, customs issues, and seeing how we can smoothen that out.”