Shania Shayal Prasad 
A Fiji-European Union Trade and Investment Forum has also been launched to enhance trade relations and explore new avenues of collaboration.
EU Ambassador to the Pacific, Sujiro Seam, says the EU wants to build better mutual understanding with the coalition government, stating this was an area of challenge they faced with the previous administration.
Seam says there are several matters that need work, including tax issues.
While Fiji remains on the EU blacklist for non-cooperative jurisdiction on tax matters, the Ambassador states that talks are underway to address this.
“The so-called EU blacklist of no cooperative jurisdiction and tax matters So we have resumed the technical dialogue between Brussels and Suva to address the matter, and hopefully we can put it to rest and remove PG in the near future from this list. So there is a sense of time to do so.”
Seam says talks are also ongoing on reinstating global sourcing from fisheries, which was dropped in the past few years.
“There was a mention of global sourcing for fisheries. Global sourcing goes with the ratification of the Economic Partnership Agreement. There is no global sourcing in Fiji because there has been no ratification of the Economic Partnership Agreement. The other countries that have ratified have global sourcing. We have a strong commitment from this government to go for ratification. So that’s going to change the conditions for the export of fish.”
Over 20 local and foreign companies are members of the forum.
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