ABSTRACT
The main idea behind the Pacific Island Countries Trade Agreement (PICTA) is to strengthen, expand and diversify trade between the island countries of the South Pacific. This includes Australia and New Zealand. Apart from the SPARTECA and to an extent the MSG, PICTA is the next major agreement that attempts to facilitate trade diversification, harmonisation and the gradual elimination of tariffs in an integrated way by covering a range of products, with the goal of eventually creating a single regional market. This, in some way, is also expected to contribute to the development and expansion of world trade. To see how these objectives may be attained, the chapter sets out a discussion of the principal areas of the agreement. While free and unhindered trade is one of the guiding principles of PICTA, it is still necessary to protect domestic and developing industries from the harmful effects of unrestricted importation.
