Sparteca debate continues

letters

Recent remarks by Professor Helen Hughes at the Fiji Accountants Congress have come to my attention, and I feel thy need a response.

Professor Hughes staed that the Rulkes of Origin criteria in SPARTECA should remain rather than introduce a Sub stantial Transformation Clause.

Her main point was that Sub stantial Transformation agree ments do not exist with any country - this is quite true except in the trade agreement the Forum countries have with the EEC, Japan and other important potential trading partners. It is of concern to me and I am sure to many other Australians that Professor Hughes can be ignorant about Forum Island trade agreements and yet be an advisorto the Australian Government on these matters.

She was concerned about the huge profit importers are making from their Fiji goods, and quoted Farah and Bonds in particular. Once again she hasn’t done her homework for she is unaware that at the time these companies commenced business negotiations with selected manufacturers in Fiji these factories were already making garments for the local and Island markets, and that these quality standards were totally unsuited for export. A considerable investment by these companies during the pastthree years in training and gearing their Fiji producers is responsible for the high quality standard they have now achieved. Further investment in more modern plantand machinery is planned for his year. The profits are certainly expected to be there for if they weren’t there would be no interest in exporting from Fiji.

David Einfeld,

Traders Pty. Ltd., Forum Island.

Author

strikes back

What a great pity that PIM (February) wasted two pages on a review of my book, Eyes Of Fire, an banal as Bary Shineberg managed to serve up. In fact, I wonder whether he really read it apart from the one chapter on the yo-ho-ho exploits of Greenpeace in the early campaigns of the Rain bow Warrior.

How any reviewer could be so insensitive to the nuclear rape of the Pacific is quite astonishing. Shineberg totally ignores the anecdotal testi mony, and indeed the point of the book, of an island commun ity ravaged by nuclear radiation in favour of discussing trivial incidents that happened on the campaign ship long before she even left for the Marshall Is lands on her Pacific and last voyage.

The historic and tragic evacuation of Rongelap atoll is glossed over in two paragraphs!

Environmental “piracy” on the high seas takes Shineberg’s fan cy instead. There is no mention at all of the moving photo graphic portrayal of the islan der’s hardships, or the book’s accusations against the United States government.

To suggest, as Shineberg does, that the US geographic position bordering the Pacific somehow give it more legiti mate defence interests than France, with the implication that it has a greater right to inflict the human cost of its military programmes on Pacific islanders, is obscene.

Far from being a voyager’s handbook or contributing to the rapidly growing literature deal ing with the sabotage of the

Warrior, the book is read by people with an awareness of environmental and independ ence issues and has gone into a third edition.

David Robie,

Auckland

Farmers’

views

clarified

I was pleased that Mike Lane, in his article “Farmers Field Investment Famine” (Feb. ’B7) used information from my re port Entrepreneurship and Business Venture Development in the Kingdom of Tonga to illustrate a key point.

However, the quote he used was not made by me but by one of the 94 commercial far mers I interviewed for the study.

Although the opinion ex pressed by this farmer was undoubtably shared by other commercial growers, it should by no means be considered a

consensus opinion by all far mers in Tonga.

Moreover, the particular phrasing used in Mr Lane’s article was misleading, making it appear as if this information was used in conjunction with the final conclusion of the re port, which it was not.

S. Deacon Ritterbush,

Information and Research Co-ordinator, The Pacific Business Centre

PIM coverage

complimented

My compliments on the sub erb stuff of recent issues. As an example, the Fiji election cover age is very good (February) and North’s inset on Fijian suffrage will be required reading in my Pacific Legal Studies class. The coverage of Tuna fishing in January was also first rate (but I don’t mean to neglect the other excellent contents.) Bill Hodge, Faculty of Law, University of Auckland.