Policymakers tango with reality

Local lawmakers were given some rude awakening by a proposal before the US Congress to repeal the special tariff privilege granted the NMI under the Covenant Agreement, specifically, the Headnote 3A provision.

It is a provision that grants duty-free tax on all goods produced in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands be it apparel, other finished products so envisioned under the much touted Free Trade Zone measure that is still in the drafting stage.

The issue isn’t a matter of economic alternative in that detractors’ argument, as vacuous as they are, remain the same–a federal takeover whenever the fate of their constituency is at perceptually at stake, i.e., the thousands of jobs in California’s apparel industry perceptually threatened by the more modern and safer NMI apparel sector. It is for this reason that we’ve urged policymakers to take a glimpse at the larger picture.

The labor unions play a key role in the protection of workers, a large group that also determines who gets elected into the state assemblies and legislatures or even the US Congress. The NMI gets an automatic strike out at this level for obvious reasons: We refuse to send in the NMI’s Winning Team (PR Firm) who are best poised to do the political jungle fighting for us. Now, we are at the eleventh hour and we might have to endure the longest eleventh hour that has ever descended on these isles as a result of our well greased sense of mañana.

The NMI is the only member of the so-called American political family who isn’t represented in the most powerful chambers on earth–the US Congress. As such, we look toward friends who sympathize with such injustice and indignity being dished out to Chamorros and Carolinians who are US Citizens too. Our office in Washington is the most glorified liaison office far removed from the power game that are played daily in committee rooms of the US Congress.

While the policymakers have been picnicking when our house is on fire, the private sector decided to gather around a make-shift fire truck to prevent the raging inferno from spreading into the entire structure. Such proactive attitude and sense of understanding of issues and what needs to be done should be the forte of policymakers. It is useless pointing fingers at each other, but it would be very beneficial for all concerns to rally behind the dedicated commitment to stave off any further assault against the local economy. And all must persistently trumpet the message that the NMI is a permanent member of the US Economic Community, no more, no less. Si Yuus Maase`!