analytical papers to support the Ministerial-level OECD Round Table on Sustainable Development. This influential body was chaired by the former New Zealand Minister for Environment and Associate Minister of Finance, Rt Hon Simon Upton. Ministers from a range of countries participated in Round Table meetings, including from France, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Sweden, Canada, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Brazil and South Africa among others. The unique format of the Round Table also included leading NGOs, such as Greenpeace and WWF, alongside business organisations such as the World Business Council on Sustainable Development, Shell, BP and so on. The unit (which fluctuated in size from up to eight analysts) led by Vitalis and reporting to the Rt Hon Upton prepared a number of ground-breaking economic papers on a range of sustainability-related issues, including how to measure sustainable development, a set of measurements for a range of sustainable development-related issues, measuring embedded carbon flows (i.e. a consumption flow model); the potential synergies between investment flows and ODA, subsequently included as a chapter in a book published by the OECD and a controversial paper on the rise of eco-labels and their trade and environment-related effects. Together with Rt Hon Upton, Vitalis produced an economic analysis and a set of policy recommendations to address illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing on the high seas (IUU). This analysis ensured that Vitalis was included as an Economic Expert Adviser to the prestigious and high-level OECD IUU Ministerial Task Force (2004-5) and subsequently chaired the OECD Trade and Environment Committee (2008–to the present), including the OECD Global Forum on Trade and Climate Change (2009). Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Wellington, New Zealand Vitalis rejoined the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 2004 and worked in the Economics Division of the Ministry as the Head of the Trade and Economic Analysis Unit. He initially worked on a set of papers on international economic issues relevant to New Zealand as a way of informing the development of the Government's Growth and Innovation Framework. It is during this time that Vitalis is believed to have first advocated the development of a customs union between Australia and New Zealand - he is known to have opposed a currency union. He also proposed the establishment of a "Minister for Australia" to take this idea forward as a way to 'refresh' the Closer Economic Relationship between