CNMI rallies support for Headnote amendment

Two ranking CNMI officials and the head of the local business group met with several officials in Washington D.C. in a series of meetings last week to rally support for an amendment to the U.S. Tariff Code that would help the NMI garment industry survive in the wake of the lifting of worldwide quota restrictions.

CNMI Resident Representative Pete A. Tenorio, Lt. Gov Diego T. Benavente, and Saipan Chamber of Commerce president Alex Sablan conducted numerous meetings on Capitol Hill and with the Bush administration to push for an amendment to Headnote 3(a).

“The effects of the World Trade Organization elimination of quotas earlier this year on our garment industry are profound and devastating,” said Tenorio. “If not for the safeguard measures implemented by President Bush, we wouldn’t have the opportunity or time to seek this amendment which will reduce the local added value from 50 percent to 30 percent.”

Benavente said the rounds of meeting meant that they were very busy, “but I think we made a lot of progress.”

“We met with over 17 members of Congress and their staff. It was an educational process in part, [as] many congressman are unaware of our current economic problems,” Benavente said.

Accompanying them to the meetings were representatives from lobbying firm Sandler, Travis and Rosenberg, which the CNMI has hired to help the CNMI.

“It was helpful that they [lobbyists] are working on this issue, and that they were able to attend all of the meetings with us. They are experts in trade and related problems, with many years of experience working with either the U.S. Trade Representatives office or the U.S. Congress. Their advice and counsel has proven to be very helpful,” said Tenorio.

The CNMI delegation met with other territorial Delegates—Madeline Bordallo from Guam, Donna Christian-Christensen from the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Eni Faleomavaega from American Samoa—as well as members of the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee who would have jurisdiction over such a bill.

The senators they met with were Sens. George Allen from Virginia, Ron Wyden from Oregon, and Daniel Akaka from Hawaii. Among those from the House of Representatives whom the CNMI delegation met with were Reps. Jim McDermott from Washington, Thomas M. Reynolds from New York, Charles B. Rangel from New York, E. Clay Shaw from Florida, Ed Case from Hawaii, Jerry Weller from Illinois, and Ron Lewis from Kentucky.

The delegation also met with Toby Burke, President Bush’s Special Assistant for Intergovernmental Affairs and officials at the Office of Insular Affairs.

“Everyone was very supportive, and understood the urgency of the situation,” said Tenorio. “It was good that we were able to show broad support for this initiative, with the Lt. Governor representing the CNMI government and Alex Sablan representing the business community.

“It showed that the CNMI community was in support of the amendment. It was also very effective in that we could point out the many labor and immigration reforms the governor has in place so that we could definitively say that the problems we had over a decade ago are now behind us,” he added.

The reduction of the local value-added content of garments made in the CNMI is being touted as a step toward helping make the CNMI garment industry once again competitive with other countries. By lowering the value-added content requirement, fabric cutting could be done in foreign countries where the wage rate is lower than the CNMI.

The amendment would also reduce the amount of fabric waste generated by the factories, which increases the burden on local landfills, and decrease the number of nonresident workers in the CNMI.