Leaders appear to be nearing a compromise in a bitter dispute over a planned fee increase for foreign-based charter boats using Virgin Islands waters.
United States VI Lieutenant Governor Tregenza Roach suggested this week that his territory would accept increases, but not the “phenomenal” ones originally proposed by Premier Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley.
Asked at a press briefing in St. Croix Tuesday if USVI operators should be prepared to pay more, Mr. Roach said, “I think that would be a safe statement.”
The tone was markedly more conciliatory than the one struck by Governor Albert Bryan Jr. at the end of February when he threatened to retaliate by imposing 25-percent tariffs on imported VI goods and slapping a transit charge on visitors en route to the territory.
The threats led Mr. Wheatley to accuse Mr. Bryan of “Trump-like bullying” before a Tortola meeting on March 7 where the pair pledged to work together to resolve their differences on the issue.
Mr. Wheatley has defended proposed fee increases of up to 6,000 percent, noting that charges have not been increased since 1992 and claiming the charter industry generates almost $100 million a year for the USVI economy. But he has also expressed a willingness to negotiate.
30-day timeline
During the Tuesday press briefing, Mr. Roach provided an update.
“We have agreed that we would go back to the bargaining table within 30 days of that [March 7 meeting], so that would be probably sometime close to the end of April,” he said.
He also praised the VI’s negotiating stance.
“The BVI made a very strong case that some of the licences in question, the fees related to them, had not increased in more than 30 years,” he said. “When you sit at the negotiating table, you have to be alert to what is important to the persons who are sitting across from you.”
Mr. Roach added that he sensed movement on the VI’s position.
“We recognise their need to generate revenue and to have multiple sources of doing that,” he said. “We brought them to the premise of movement because some of their fees that they proposed increasing were really phenomenal increases.”
Compromise, he said, is the way forward.
“There was additional data that we needed, and I think when we look at that data we will be able to come to some conclusions that I think everyone can live with,” he said.
Mr. Roach added that the VI needs revenue in part because the “British experience with colonialism” means that the territory rarely receives financial support from London even following hurricanes and other natural disasters.
“There are differences between us and the BVI,” he said. “One big difference is that they have a lot of control over who comes into their territory. Another fundamental difference is that they are largely self-sufficient.”
Legislation paused
After the Tortola meeting, Mr. Wheatley paused legislation designed to reform the marine industry and said he wanted to bring it back to the House of Assembly by June. At present, annual fees to use VI waters can be as low as $200 even though Mr. Wheatley claimed USVI vessels could be charging customers as much as $100,000 a week.
Under the originally proposed legislation, the annual licensing fee for “unrestricted” foreign vessels shorter than 115 feet would be $24,000 — a 2,900 percent increase from the $800 maximum annual fee now. And foreign day charters would have to pay a $12,500 yearly charge — a 6,150 percent hike on the current $200 fee.
Fees for VI-based commercial vessels would also increase under the proposed law, but not nearly as steeply as for foreign operators.
An annual charge for a VI-based commercial boat under 40 feet would double from $200 to $400, for example, and the annual fee for territory-based vessels between 40 and 115 feet that offer day charters would increase from $200 to $800.
The Marine Association of the BVI wrote to HOA members in January expressing concern about many aspects of the proposed legislation, but it didn’t oppose the fee increases.
