Amata calls for "Sustainable Development Strategy" to keep Tuna Canneries and attract New Investment; Thanks Friends of American Samoa In Congress and Bush Administration for Trying to Help, but expresses disappointment with Eni's "Desperation Strategy" Resulting in Proposed One Year Extension of Section 936 Corporate Tax Break Set to Expire Next Month
November 17, 2005

Aumua: "We've had ten years to propose real solutions that can actually grow our economy, and to ask our friends to support a success story. Instead we waited for a crisis and the threat of economic failure. So now we are imposing upon our friends to bail us out at the last minute, with a short term fix that satisfies no one."

Reprinted from Samoa News, November 17, 2005

PAGO PAGO, AMERICAN SAMOA. The Republican National Committeewoman for American Samoa, Aumua Amata, is asking critical questions about the failure of American Samoa's Delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives to formulate a sustainable development strategy to keep tuna canneries in the territory and attract new investment.

Amata said, "Ten years ago the U.S. Congress, in an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote, rejected the Section 936 corporate tax credit scheme that our companies relied on in the past. We had ten years to propose an alternative that would help sustain our tuna canneries in the highly competitive and cost sensitive market where they must compete."

"We did nothing," continued Aumua, "except hope someone else would come up with a new corporate tax gimmick. The worst thing about this failure of leadership is that it presumed our friends would be forced to rescue us from our own failure to help ourselves."

Amata added, "Instead of a solution Congress could really embrace and support for 10 or 15 years, we have left our friends with no choice but to hold their noses and give us a one year extension of a tax credit that has been rejected by Congress as failed developmental policy and bad tax policy. Whether we want to agree or not, that is the political reality."

She continued, "Chairman Thomas and other members of Congress, as well as Department of Interior Secretary Gale Norton, have tried to watch out for us, recognizing that our private sector is small scale and fragile. I want to thank them for their leadership and sincere concern. If our Delegate had done his job better, they could have done something more meaningful for American Samoa."

"It is truly lamentable," she said, " when we have true friends who will help us when we ask, that we squander that precious opportunity by asking for something that they can only give for one year, so that it does not really meet our true needs. We know it, and they know it."

Aumua Amata said that instead Faleomavaega should have asked for a GAO or the Joint Committee on Tax study to help American Samoa formulate an alternative to Section 936 once it was rejected by Congress. "Instead of copying measures adopted in the past for other jurisdictions, we can and should have developed options to meet the unique and specific needs of American Samoa."

"This is not just about criticizing the Delegate for being asleep at the wheel and AWOL," she emphasized. There are alternatives that have not been pursued as aggressively as needed to prevent this last minute panic attack, and one year reprieve, as the sun sets on Section 936. For example, an American Samoa employment wage credit, tied to actual job creation instead of corporate profits, may be something Congress could actually favor and support without the objections raised against Section 936."

"That is just one option. The Delegate knows or should know that this option and others are out there, and that other corporate tax deductions available in the mainland are out there, but instead of fighting for real reform he has been a spectator. His only fallback was the desperation strategy that has produced a one year extension proposal. Again, even one year more of Section 936 is a lot for our friends to give, but not what our Delegate should have asked from them. We can and should do better, before it is too late."

Aumua Amata concluded by saying, "What we need is to provide stability for our existing companies, the tuna canneries, and promote job creation. We need a long term solution that is a better fit for our labor intensive operations, and one that Congress is willing to consider. So we need to work with our friends to formulate a better solution, instead of pleading for a temporary solution that merely delays the real problem and that no one is happy with."