The government of Vanuatu will sign the PACER Plus agreement in Samoa on Thursday.
The signing will take place at the margins of the 48th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders meeting in Apia.
Prime Minister Charlot Salwai is leading the Vanuatu Government delegation at the meeting.
At its meeting last Thursday, the Council of Ministers decided that Vanuatu can now proceed with the signing of the Australia and New Zealand-led trade agreement.
However, it raised some issues which remain to be satisfactorily resolved.
The Government said the continued restricted access of commercial trade of kava into the Australian market is inadequate for good normal trade relations and it wants Australia to remove these unfair trade practices.
Vanuatu has also wants Australia and New Zealand to grant visa waiver of Ni-Vanuatu visitors to those countries which will lead to a freer movement of persons as part of the efforts to greater economic integration in the region.
There is also a call for Australia and New Zealand to increase their development assistance programme to Forum Island Countries, not only through the PACER Plus framework but also for increased bilateral development assistance programmes for FICs and in particular budget support for Vanuatu as it faces adjustment in the years ahead.
Vanuatu will become the 11th country to sign the agreement. Fiji and Papua New Guinea are refusing to sign PACER Plus. The Federated States of Micronesia, Palau and the Republic of Marshall Islands were absent from the signing ceremony in Tonga in June apparently due to transport problems.
Photo by Loop Vanuatu. Caption: Prime Minister Charlot Salwai at the Pacific ACP Leaders meeting in Apia