FIJI will soon receive notification as to whether Australia will extend SPARTECA for the next seven years. An extention to the South Pacific Regional Trade and Economic Co-operation Agreement would give Fiji, along with 14 other island nations, preferential access to Australia's markets. Fiji Foreign Affairs Minister Kaliopate Tavola said he expected the notification to come before the Australian elections.
The agreement would extend duty free access into Australia for textiles, clothing and footwear products from Fiji for the next seven years. Fiji's Labour Party leader Mahendra Chaudhry criticised Australia's plan to extend the SPARTECA trade agreement by seven years. He said it would have been much better for Australia to consider the extension of an Import Credit Scheme, which was something Fiji had long requested.
In other news, the University of California, Berkeley, and the Samoan government have agreed to share profits made from any drug derived from a rainforest tree that offers hope for a potential AIDS fighter. The pact, announced Thursday, involves the gene sequence of prostratin, an experimental anti-HIV compound extracted from the bark of the mamala tree.
"Prostratin is Samoa's gift to the world," Samoan Minister of Trade Joseph Keil, said in a statement released by UC Berkeley. "We are pleased to accept the University of California as a full partner in the effort to isolate the prostratin genes."
Prostratin works by triggering dormant HIV cells, exposing them so they can be attacked by other anti-AIDS drugs. Berkeley researchers plan to clone the genes from the mamala tree and insert them into bacteria to create a microbial source of the drug.
Berkeley has agreed to share 50 percent of commercial proceeds from the genes. Samoa's share will go to the government, to villages and to the families of healers who first taught ehtno-botanist Dr. Paul Alan Cox about the plant's medicinal properties. The agreement also says Berkeley and Samoa will negotiate distributing the drug, if successful, to developing nations at a minimal profit.
The National Cancer Institute patented prostratin's use as an anti-HIV drug and requires commercial developers to negotiate a profit-sharing agreement with Samoa. A previous royalty agreement on prostratin was signed in 2001 with the AIDS Research Alliance. That agreement returns 20 percent of commercial profits to the people of Samoa.
Helen Ware, an Australian analyst, says Melanesia faces instability and conflict unless Australia starts to open its door to young workers from Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Professor Helen Ware says Melanesia needs the emigration safety valve sending workers offshore which she says has helped Polynesia to defuse conflict. The professor says that violent unrest is becoming increasingly common because of the growing number of young people and the drift to the cities. Nearly 20 percent of the adult population is aged between fiften and twenty-four years, which suggests a cohort of young people ready to take part in urban unrest.
Go To Page: 1 2
