American Samoa now faces financial crunch

American Samoa had some financial issues before the earthquake Tuesday and now those problems are going to be a bit worse. The American Samoa legislature had already been grilling Governor Togiola Tulafono on how much money he had taken from a fund that he proposed to tap yet again for $5 million to buy the Chicken of the Sea tuna cannery in Pago Pago. That cannery, which has 2,100 employees, is an instant economic crisis after closing Wednesday. No buyer has stepped forward. Tulafono wants to buy it and hire someone to operate it for the government. His thinking is that $5 million isn't so much when you consider all the social benefits the government will have to pay to those 2,100 people if they're thrown out of work. Indeed, Tulafono wasn't in American Samoa when the tsunami hit Tuesday because he was in Honolulu looking for someone to manage the cannery. At this writing Tulafono was planning to hitch a ride on a Coast Guard C-130 taking relief supplies to Pago Pago and would be back home at first light Wednesday. Commercial aviation isn't so simple at the moment. The Federal Aviation Administration has closed Pago Pago International Airport after damage to the runway. Hawaiian Airlines, whose next department from Honolulu to Pago Pago is scheduled to leave at 5 p.m. Thursday, says it still hopes to be able to make that run. It is not evident to me how much American Samoa government funds have been tapped. Certainly the government has economic challenges not unlike those of the 50 states in this global downturn. Reading Pago Pago news accounts, I see that lawmakers and the governor do not trust each other - even when the governor answers all the questions he's asked, the lawmakers reply that they would now like it in writing - but it's not clear who, if anyone, is right. It may be that there is enough money for disaster relief, but then not enough left over to keep the cannery open.

Comments

[Michael]

Japan, I am sure has an eye out for Samoa. They can use the cannery for their own fishing fleet. With the purchase they would also be able to obtain fishing rights in areas around the Samoas.