‘Continue hiring DC consultant’

Lt. Gov. Diego T. Benavente recommends the continued hiring of a Washington D.C.-based consulting firm to work on the urgently needed congressional amendment to the U.S. Harmonized Tariff Code.

“There’s urgency involved here. We need their services, especially at this critical time,” said Benavente, who recently flew to D.C. to rally support for the amendment that is being touted as a means to boost the CNMI garment manufacturers’ competitiveness.

He said the administration’s contract with Travis Sandler and Rosenberg had ended on June 30. However, since the administration had earlier held off giving the firm any consulting work in June, the firm has agreed to extend its service for the whole month of July. (It did not perform work for the CNMI in June as the administration was waiting to see what would happen with the Central American Free Trade Agreement, which is now pending before the U.S. House of Representatives. However, the CNMI government could no longer wait for Congress to act on the agreement, Benavente said, hence the decision to resume giving the lobbying firm work.)

“They generously agreed to do another month to work for us. Our administration has not made a decision whether to continue with the contract. My recommendation to the governor is to continue with it, most especially when we are at a most critical time in this effort because this is when we need to draw out how to propose it before the Congress,” said Benavente.

The firm is paid $15,000 for a month’s work. “This is the minimum rate we’re paying. This is way below the $250,000 a month that the CNMI government used to pay a consultant,” said Benavente.

He said it is necessary that the CNMI make the needed steps now to ensure that the amendment is done before the end of the year.

“It will be very necessary, especially between now and the next few months, to set the strategies on how to move this [amendment],” he said.

He warned that the CNMI garment manufacturers face the risk of losing their buyers if the federal amendment is not done within the year. Any sudden pullout of buyers, he said, would mean the immediate loss of 40 percent of government revenues, which he said is not tolerable.

“That’s why a consulting firm is needed. There are issues that are administrative in nature that our Washington Rep. office can do alone. We’ve done that in the past without a consulting firm. We’ve improved our U.S. relations without a consulting firm but there are issues that require a consulting firm such as this one,” said Benavente.

The CNMI is asking Congress to amend Headnote 3(a) of the Tariff Code to allow local manufacturers to reduce the local value added requirement on garment products from 50 percent to 30 percent.

This, he said, is similar to what Congress has already granted some foreign countries.