Delegate-elect Kimberlyn King-Hinds speaks to members of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce during its December general membership meeting at Saipan World Resort on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024.
U.S. Delegate-elect Kimberlyn King-Hinds called on the Saipan Chamber of Commerce to back her push for the reinstatement of the Annex VI exemption for the CNMI.
Under Annex VI of the U.S.-China bilateral agreement, the CNMI is not subject to flight frequency limitations between the two nations.
Prior to the pandemic, China was the islands’ second largest tourism market.
“Our job as a Commonwealth is to work together towards a common goal, and [one of] the things that I’ve campaigned on is restoring Annex VI. We’re going to need every single person in this room to join in on that ask,” she said in her remarks during the chamber’s December general meeting at the Saipan World Resort on Wednesday.
King-Hinds said the CNMI needs to open tourism to “all markets.”
“For businesses to thrive, we need both employees and customers, and our largest pool of customers comes from tourism,” she said. “So we must work together to attract more visitors by opening up all markets immediately.”
King-Hinds also spoke of a need to collaborate with the Department of Labor and the business community in order to have a “conversation about a [labor] policy that is particularized to the needs of the people of the Commonwealth.”
According to King-Hinds, she will need to work quickly to get her policies through a Republican U.S. Congress and a Republican White House.
“When you have a president who only has one term left, we’re going to have some challenges in the last two years of his term because campaign season is going to begin for the next presidency,” said King-Hinds, who is a Republican. “So the way I look at this situation is we have two years…. I ran for delegate to do a job. And we have very limited time to get this job done while the stars have aligned. I’m asking all of you to be our partners, for all of us to rally together, for all of us to think Team CNMI. Think CNMI First.”
She said “working together to achieve a shared vision” is needed to “level up” the CNMI.
Without a unified voice from the Commonwealth, the U.S. Congress is “not very clear about what exactly our priorities are,” she added.
“Our ‘asks’ have been all over the board,” she noted.
Chamber member Brad Ruszala asked King-Hinds how she plans to address the perception that “the CNMI has two conflicting voices speaking against each other” when advocating in Washington on issues like Annex VI and opening the tourism market.
Gov. Arnold I. Palacios favors a policy of “pivoting” away from the Chinese tourism market while advocating for a greater U.S. military presence in the CNMI.
He has refused to ask the U.S. government to reinstate the CNMI’s Annex VI exemption.
“It’s never a good look to have your head of state and your delegate not…aligned and I had this conversation with the governor,” King-Hinds said. “He and I are going to have to work together but I’ll tell you this, [the Commonwealth Ports Authority] desperately needs the money. Where are we going to get this money? Because certainly cutting is not going to do it. This is not about politics, this is about the economy, period. It’s time for all of us to just put aside whatever feelings that we have about certain issues and focus on providing the relief that the people need,” said King-Hinds, a former CPA board chair.
She also spoke about potential hurdles she will need to overcome regarding the relationship between the federal government and the CNMI.
“The hurdles preventing these steps from occurring have been put into place by the government or are influenced by federal policy…. How you run your business, who you are allowed to hire to fill your specific needs, and the amount and origin of people who are allowed to be your customers are the decision of the government,” she said.
In Washington, D.C., she vowed to prioritize the CNMI’s needs.
“With these conversations that we’ve been having with regards to Annex VI, the federal government is telling us what to do instead of us advocating for the businesses that are here that are desperately seeking relief. I’m not here to parrot what the concerns are of the federal government. My job as your delegate is to go to Washington, D.C.”
