President Clinton’s new Caribbean Basin Initiative announced last Friday
\n(March 5) would provide 100 percent duty-free treatment of textile and apparel
\nproducts–double the 50 percent duty-free treatment he proposed last year.<\/p>\n
The increase is reportedly to take into account the economic situation that
\nthe region faces because of the hurricanes that hit the region last year. The
\nbenefits apply from October 1, 1999 to June 30, 2001 and include textile
\nproducts assembled from US fabric containing US yarn.<\/p>\n
We appreciate the fact that President Clinton has immersed himself in economic
\ndetails over the past six years–in concert with Federal Reserve Board<\/p>\n
Chairman Alan Greenspan, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, and Larry Summers,
\nthe youngest tenured economics professor in Harvard history–and developed
\nwithin him a framework “to do what was best for the global economy”.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, nowhere in his policy to keep the US economy healthy is included
\nthe economic fate of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas whose economy
\nhas been ravaged on nearly all corners by the Asian crisis not to mention the
\nlethal effects of instability encouraged by a federal takeover plan of the
\nislands. As such, investors now on island have decided to downsize while
\nprospective investors have decided to head elsewhere. The latter has wreaked
\nhavoc in encouraging lasting investments. It is completely contrary to the<\/p>\n
President’s policy on wealth and jobs creation.<\/p>\n
The CNMI is situated in the typhoon belt area and occasionally the victim of
\nthe destructive force of supertyphoons. The aftermath of a supertyphoon sends
\nmost everybody in both sectors through a period of reconstruction, salvaging
\nwhat’s left after a heavy wind-driven rain destroyed both residential areas
\nand businesses. News of impending storm shuts down business operations for at
\nleast a week to a month’s time. Recovery is gradual and it is especially
\ndifficult for the business sector.<\/p>\n
If anything, this is the one time in our developmental history where similar
\ninitiative could be formulated to assist the NMI muddle through this difficult
\ntimes. After all, it is the fiduciary responsibility of the federal
\ngovernment to assist the NMI “attain a progressively higher standard of
\nliving” under the terms and conditions of the Covenant Agreement. The Clinton<\/p>\n
Administration has failed the NMI in this regard and perhaps it is high time
\nthat the president reviews the adolescent and destructive policy his US<\/p>\n
Department of Interior henchmen have taken against the NMI.<\/p>\n
We hope that in his last two years in office, President Clinton would realign
\nhis policy of wealth and jobs creation so that it is equally made applicable
\nin every jurisdiction rather than allow Interior to funnel money unfairly to
\nits “favorite constituency”. Fair is fair and we ask for nothing less than a
\nshare of that fairness as a member of the greater American Economic Community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Clinton’s new Caribbean Basin Initiative announced last Friday
\n(March 5) would provide 100 percent duty-free treatment of textile and apparel
\nproducts–double the 50 percent duty-free treatment he proposed last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45785\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}