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PORT VILA, Vanuatu - The leaders of Pacific African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries held a summit meeting here on Tuesday and discussed such issues as relationship with the European Union and regional trade.
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In the opening remarks, Secretary General of Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, Tuiloma Neroni Slade, said the Pacific ACP region has benefited from development assistance provided by the European Union through its European Development Fund, but there were some difficulties and delays in the negotiations for a comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with the EU.
He also said the implementation of the Pacific Islands Countries Trade Agreement (PICTA) was making progress and seven forum island countries, including Cook Islands, Fiji, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu, had announced their readiness to trade under PICTA.
In the next few days, the leaders of the Pacific ACP countries will meet with the EU representative to the post-forum dialogues Christain Leffler who is the Deputy Director-General at the Directorate General for Development and Relation with ACP states.
The Pacitic ACP countries are the countries of the 16-member Pacific Islands Forum except Australia and New Zealand.