Previous Story
The need for Duty Free access to the U. S. Market
|
Posted on Apr 30 2001
Below is another article by Bill Stewart written about seven years ago. We tend to forget that certain rights and privileges were negotiated and written in the Covenant with the United States. The people fought hard and long for them. Now there are certain people, because of their own selfish agenda, are bent on taking them away.
Hopefully we will remember what some of these rights and privileges mean to our economy and to our survival. The fight must continue until our enemies are defeated. To let them succeed will mean the loss of the CNMI’s identity. We will become a servile dependent and follower, like a lap dog, for the United States to pet or put aside as its whim urges.
Here again are the prophetic soundings of a highly educated and respected man who has spent over 27 years in the region. Some times it takes several readings and several years of changes before the full implication of a situation grasps us.
“The benefits of Headnote 3 (a) of the U. S. Customs Tariff Schedule allowing duty free entry into the United States of qualified products manufactured in the Northern Marianas provides the only real economic link the Commonwealth’s private sector has with the United States. Without this entry to the U. S. market, it is unlikely that the two economies would have any meaningful trade connection at all. There would be only a one-way-street of imports flowing to the Commonwealth.
“Considering the high cost of ocean shipping, it is possible that Japan could eventually replace the U. S. as a source of many supplies with the result that the Commonwealth’ private sector commercial links with the States could become even thinner. With the exception of a small number of American tourists briefly visiting the islands, the only connection would be that of a rather sterile government to government bureaucratic relationship.
“In addition, in the early eighties ocean shippers were reluctant to call at Saipan with cargo because they had to return empty. The exports of the garment industry, benefiting from Headnote 3 (a), helped convince the carriers that they could obtain a return cargo. This had the effect of reducing in
