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Financial Assistance, Tourism, Flights, And Workforce Top Agenda Of US-CNMI Talks
Mark Rabago, RNZ Pacific Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas correspondent
The Commonwealth of Northern Marianas and the United States governments will meet on Saipan to discuss their political relations and financial assistance to the territory.
The Covenant to Establish the CNMI in Political Union with the US (Covenant) governs relations between Washington and Northern Marianas.
Section 902 of the Covenant provides that the US and Northern Mariana Islands governments "will designate special representatives to meet and consider…issues affecting" their relationships.
For this new round of consultations, Governor Arnold Palacios requested to engage with the US government on three priority issues: 1) direct financial assistance under Section 702 of the Covenant; 2) tourism and transportation infrastructure; and 3) access to skilled labour.
Section 702 of the Covenant provides for an initial seven-year period of financial assistance to the CNMI government.
After the expiration of that initial period, the US government has continued to provide assistance to the CNMI through a series of long-term funding agreements.
The most recent long-term funding agreement was executed in 1992. That agreement, which, after being extended by the US Congress, expired on 30 September 2003, generally provided the CNMI with $11 million per year for capital improvement projects.
In tourism and transportation, the Commonwealth's economy hasn't been what it used to be before the Covid-19 pandemic as visitor arrivals have gone down.
In recent years, the business sector has urged Palacios to ask the US government to reinstate the exemption for the CNMI from the cap on direct flights between the US and China.
This arises out of Article 6 of the 2007 US-China Air Transport Agreement, which states that the airlines of the US. may provide unlimited scheduled air services between three points in the People Republic of China and Guam and the CNMI.
Essentially, Annex 6 gives the CNMI the opportunity to receive direct flights from China without having to go through the 2007 US-China Air Transport Agreement between the US and China.
On workforce woes, the CNMI-Only Transitional Worker Program will end in 2029. The CW-1 Program has a cap of 13,000 workers-a cap that is reduced annually by 1000 workers.
In fiscal year 2025, the CW1 cap shall be limited to 9,000 workers and does not authorize the hiring of construction and extraction occupations.
Currently, there are approximately 5000 CW-1 workers in the CNMI and the CNMI may need as many 15,000 foreign workers to meet the demands of the growing economy and the development of new industries.
"We want [the United States government representatives] to come and see the challenges we face to [understand] why the discussion points we are going to bring up are very relevant. We have some tentative dates but that's up for discussion," Palacios said.
The CNMI governor is currently in discussion with US President Joseph Biden's appointed representative, assistant secretary of the Interior Carmen Cantor, to finalise dates and protocols for the upcoming 902 talks.
"I will be meeting with assistant secretary Cantor, whose been appointed to be the President's representative for the 902 talks, and we're going to be finalising the dates and protocols for the meetings. We're exchanging those thoughts, and we will be finalising that," he said.
Palacios adds that the 902 talks will push forward, and he hopes they will be finalised by the time the US elects its new President.
"When a new President comes in, a lot of shifting will occur of course, but we have to give them time," he said.
"There are some folks that we're probably going to meet who will still be there.
"Nevertheless, if the new administration comes in, we're going to make sure that we make that effort to immediately communicate with the White House to continue those talks," he added.
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