THE PRESS TUESDAY, JUNE 17, 1986. U.S. and the South Pacific

Press, 17 June 1986, Page 16

THE PRESS TUESDAY, JUNE 17, 1986. U.S. and the South Pacific

The San Francisco seminar on the Pacific islands, about which we printed a report on Saturday, was not a governmental gathering, but a meeting of a number of important people representing countries. The seminar was organised by the Pacific Islands Association, a private group formed in 1982, which has held several important seminars.

The theme of the latest seminar was investment, and the point of many comments made there was that the United States ought to heighten its interest in the Pacific islands. A number of speakers would like to see some of the island States become less dependent on Australia and New Zealand.

The opportunities for investment in many of the islands of the Pacific are not great. Greater American interest in the region concerns three matters: the resolution of the tuna fishing dispute; the provision of more aid; and uncertainties about defence. The tuna issue arises because these fish are one of the few valuable natural resources that many of the islands have. The American Tuna Boat Association, whose members fish in much of the central Pacific, has refused to pay for fishing rights because the United States Government does not accept that highly migratory species of fish come under the jurisdiction of the States through whose waters the fish pass. This situation has rankled with a number of the island States for years. The United States at last recognised that if it wanted to maintain good relations with the Pacific nations, it had to come to an agreement about tuna. What the United States and the island countries have been negotiating is a multilateral treaty under which one fee would be paid to the island States to allow American fishermen to take the tuna. The negotiations have made progress, though no fee has yet been agreed. The Soviet Union has put the United States on its mettle because it has negotiated a licence fee to fish around Kiribati. This has caused alarm for strategic reasons.

The United States has not given direct aid to individual South Pacific countries, though it is expected soon to give aid to Fiji. Most of its aid has been given through a private organisation, the Foundation for the Peoples of the South Pacific. The United States argues that if it gives bilateral aid, its present.

administrative rules mean that it would have to supervise the spending of the aid. This would mean establishing a number of posts which could disturb the delicate economies of the region.

The argument makes sense. The United States has Peace Corps people in the region. It also gives aid through the South Pacific Commission, of which it is a member, and occasionally undertakes a joint venture with such organisations as the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Co-operation, part of the South Pacific Forum, of which the United States is not a member.

New Zealand’s aid to the South Pacific represents a high proportion of New Zealand’s total overseas aid. In 1984-85, it amounted to about $5B million. Australia’s aid to the South Pacific is substantial, particularly to Papua New Guinea, its former colony. Its latest five-year plan for aid to Papua New Guinea began in 1984 and amounts to sAustl.4 billion. In 1984-1985, this meant aid of sAust3l6.6 million, of which sAust299 million was in direct Budget support.

New Zealand and Australia have viewed the technique of giving aid to the South Pacific as a matter of adjusting to the small scale of the region. The United States is coming under pressure to resolve the tuna issue and to find some way of providing more aid. If the United States is to give the aid with sensitivity, it will either have to alter its present organisation, or be prepared to make the aid available through regional organisations.

New Zealand’s withdrawal from many of its defence commitments has heightened American concern about other States in the South Pacific. Until last year, those States could look to New Zealand for help, and to the United States through New Zealand’s membership of A.N.Z.U.S. Now the United States has an incentive to build direct links with South Pacific islands; several of the island States have expressed alarm that a power vacuum has arisen in the region. More financial aid from the United States would help to reassure the small island Governments that believe, not without reason, they have lost the Western protection they once enjoyed through New Zealand.