Pacific

Commonwealth Countries of the Pacific: Few Facts

There are 11 Commonwealth Countries in the Pacific region. Six of them such as Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Tonga are members of the WTO while Samoa and Vanuatu are in the process of accession.

In terms of Human Development Index (HDI) ranks, three countries---Australia, New Zealand, Tonga --- rank among the highly developed countries, while five countries---Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu--- come in the medium level on the HDI scale. The trade to GDP ratio, regarded as a measure of trade openness of the country, shows Fiji as having the highest with 126.6%, while Australia has the lowest with 39.5% of share (of trade) in the GDP. Average Trade to GDP ratio of the region is 89.56% with a variance of 44%.

GDP growth rates of the countries in this region also vary from 0.3% (Kiribati) to 6.8% (Vanuatu) with Samoa (5.5%) and Solomon Island (4.4%) being other two economies with good growth rates.

In terms of contribution to the economy, Fiji (77%), Australia (70%), New Zealand (68%), Kiribati (67%), Vanuatu (62%), Tuvalu (56%) and Tonga (50%) are the countries having more than 50% contribution to the economy coming from services. In Samoa, 58% contribution to the economy comes from industry sector which is basically, food processing and automobile electrical harnesses. Solomon Islands (42%), Papua New Guinea (35%), Vanuatu (26%) and Tonga (23%) are countries with high contribution of agriculture to the economy.

In terms of export-import basket of the countries of this region, except Australia which exports machinery and transport equipment and metals in addition to wool, meat and wheat; and Nauru which exports phosphates, most of the countries export agriculture produces. Almost all the countries import machinery and transport equipment, crude oil and petroleum products, food and chemicals.
Australia has a world trade share in merchandise ad services export of more than 1% and New Zealand has around 0.2% -0.35% share in world trade. Rest of the countries of the region has negligible share in world trade.

Table 1: WTO, Trade-GDP Ratio and HDI Status of the Pacific Commonwealth Members

^{#Ratio is for the year 2003-05 unless mentioned otherwise.
*Statute of Westminster
** rejoined in 1997 after 10 year lapse
*** Statute of Westminster
##Observer status is regarded as accession in process.}