The South Pacific Regional Trade and Economic Co-operation Agreement (SPARTECA) is a nonreciprocal trade agreement in which Australia and New Zealand offer duty-free and unrestricted access for specified products originating from the developing island member countries of the Pacific Islands Forum.
The agreement was signed in 1980 in Tarawa, Kiribati, and subject to Rules of Origin regulations, designed to address the unequal trade relationships between the two groups.
[1] The textiles, clothing and footwear (TCF) industry has been a major beneficiary of SPARTECA through the preferential access to Australian and New Zealand markets.
The rapid expansion of the Fiji TCF industry has been attributed to the removal of TCF quotas by the Australian Government in 1987 which allowed quota free and duty-free access under SPARTECA, the introduction of the Tax Free Factory/Zone (TFF/TFZ) Scheme in 1988 and the Australian Import Credit Scheme (ICS).
It was introduced as a temporary measure to encourage Australian TCF exports and terminated on 30 June 2000, except in the case of Fiji, where an extension had been granted to October 2000.