The Minister for International Trade and Investment Richard Maru, on Monday opened the Consultation Workshop organized by the Department of International Trade and Investment and the National Trade Office on the total review of the full impact of the new U.S tariff increases. Minister Maru told the participants from both Government and the private sector to provide input on this assessment of the full impact of the new U.S Tarriff increases to major trading partners including Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea (PNG) and many others. “We must also assess the impact on industries that depend on U.S imports like Air Niugini who mainly import aircraft parts from the U.S. While coffee is one of our major exports to the U.S, can we not replace the U.S market with new markets like Japan and New Zealand instead of depending on the U.S Market? PNG does not impose tariff on services from the U.S and this is one area we need to look at. We also need to look at the Fisheries Access we give to the U.S fishing companies who fish and catch tune in our EEZ under our Bilateral Agreement. This is a good opportunity to look at the totality of our overall trade and investment relationship with the U.S. No stones should be left unturned. “The U.S President Donald Trump claims this action is necessary to make U.S great again. There is so much speculation like the U.S President is doing this as a short-term measure to get the stock market to crash so a lot of his fans and supporters can buy stocks at a very cheap price. Nobody really knows the true intentions behind this U.S decision. Only time will tell whether this is a long-term measure to grow the U.S economy and make the U.S great again or it is a short-term measure to achieve some personal agenda, " Mr. Maru said. Minister Maru further stated that the actions of the U.S has totally undermined the rules-based multilateral system administered by the World Trade Organization (WTO) which PNG is a member of. He said the U.S is now bringing in protection not seen and experienced by the world in over 10 years and the world has to decide whether to have US in the WTO family or throw the U.S out while the rest of the world carries on with the rules-based multilateral system. Minister Maru also told the participants at the workshop to review PNG’s tariff structure and consider what support the Government should be giving especially the manufacturing industry. He requested a full report of the review including recommendations to be presented to the NEC for the Government to consider. “I want the review completed before the end of this month,” said Minister Maru.