Date: 1982-12-17
Speaker: DE LUGO (democrat)
Chamber: H

I thank the gentleman and cosponsor of this amendment. Mr. Chairman. from the beginning. I have consistently supported President Reagans intention to address the longsimmering problems of our neighbors in the Caribbean Basin. We in the U.S. Virgin Islands know firsthand of the economic and political problems of the area for the people hi these islands are our closest neighbors. In fact. onehalf of my constituents come from these other islands. I have from the beginning indicated my willingness and the willingness of the people of the U.S. Virgin Islands to assist the administration in achieving the goals set by the President. Those goals. outlined by the President. were to bolster the economies of the Caribbean and to prevent the spread of political instability. At the same time. the President insisted that the U.S. possessions in the Caribbean were to be "enhanced" and not hurt by his new policies. Mr. Chairman. the legislation that is before us now eliminates safeguards for our rum industry and completely dilutes our convention tax benefits advantagetwo devastating blows to our two major industries..This legislation will certainly not enhance the U.S. possessions. it will only serve to pit us against our brothers and sisters in the Caribbean in a battle for economic survival. It is a nowin situation for the territories. for the Caribbean countries. or even for the United States. I am not going to go into the technical details of the rum amendment I am offering today. Those details were all spelled out in the letter I sent to every Member of the House this morning. What is important here is the bottom line: The economic bottom line and the political bottom line. Economically. my amendment will allow the rum producing countries of the Caribbean to increase their exports of rum to the United States by 1.400 percent. and to enter that rum dutyfree with the United States. It also allows the territorial rum industry to survive. to be able to withstand this massive increase in competition in a very price sensitive. bulk rum "pennies count" industry. Politically. my amendment is based on a compromise that I worked out with the U.S. -Trade Ambassador William Brock when he recognized the logic of maintaining these healthy industries in the territories. My hmendment goes even beyond that compromise that Ambassador Brock and I agreed to. It gives two key additional concessions in direct response to the request made to me personally by the Ambassadors of Jamaica and Barbados. For them it is a political victory. To my mind. it is also another clearcut indication of the willingness of the U.S. citizens in the territories to help make CBI work. For we want it to work. we live in the Caribbean. We are the United States in the Caribbean. I recognize all the pressure that the Ways and Means Committee has been under with this bill. And. I appreciate very much the consideration its members. the chairman of the committee. the gentleman from Illinois. the ranking Republican member. the gentleman from New York. and the chairman of the subcommittee. the gentleman from Florida. has given to the territories in their deliberations. I am not attempting here to thwart the will of the committee. or to thwart the will of the administration. or to undermine the CBI. I am attempting here to make this legislation a threat to no one. to make this legislation a positive force that will bring stability and strength to all the Caribbeanour neighbors and our U.S. territories.