Government House spokesperson Richard Motta Jr. pushed back on a recent statement from Del. Stacey Plaskett and said during a weekly briefing Monday that Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. can do little to change the territory’s exclusion from the United States Customs Zone.
“The Virgin Islands’s exclusion from the U.S. Customs Zone was not a local choice,” Motta said Monday. “It never was. It was established by Congress in the Tariff Act of 1930, which means only Congress has the authority to change that status — not Governor Bryan and not the President of the United States — and that has been the case since the United States Virgin Islands was acquired by the United States in 1917.”
The comment came after President Donald Trump signed an executive order eliminating duty-free “de minimis” treatment for packages valued under $800, which the White House described as a “catastrophic loophole used to, among other things, evade tariffs and funnel deadly synthetic opioids as well as other unsafe or below-market products that harm American workers and businesses into the United States” on its website.
The change took effect last month and created an “unfair burden for territorial residents” who rely heavily on sending and receiving packages to and from the U.S. mainland, Plaskett said in a statement last week. Plaskett said it “is the discretion and authority of the Governor of the Virgin Islands to make requests to the Federal Government about inclusion or exclusion from the Customs Zone.”
“I have said, for more than 10 years, that the Virgin Islands should determine if being outside of the Customs Zone has the same benefit that it did over 100 years ago to our Territory and residents,” she stated. “If not, the Governor of the Virgin Islands as the individual with authority to enter into arrangements of this nature with the Federal Government should request such change which would then require the executive branch authorization.”
On Monday, Motta said he was privy to correspondence between Plaskett and the White House regarding a potential exemption for the territory.
“And so that is what we’re tracking right now,” he said.
In her own statement, Plaskett noted her work in securing an exemption from port fees imposed by the U.S. Trade Representative earlier this year and said she will “apply that same determination to find a waiver for the U.S. territories from this customs duty requirement.”
That’s assuming the federal government will be up and running. By Monday evening, Trump and congressional leaders were continuing to spar over a spending bill needed to fund government services. If they fail to reach a compromise by Tuesday night, many of those services will come to a halt.
Locally, Motta said Monday that the administration doesn’t “anticipate any real impacts to our local government operations” and noted that the territory has weathered federal government shutdowns before.
“But of course, we always hope that they can avoid that, as it does impact our … federal government employees here locally, with respect to their pay, and certain federal government operations here in the territory,” he said. Motta added the impacts of previous shutdowns have been “fairly minimal and have been resolved long before any long-term impacts could be realized.”
The U.S. Interior Department has yet to announce whether a shutdown will include national parks and other sites, of which there are five in the territory. A contingency plan the National Park Service published in 2024 states that: “In general, the National Park Service sites will be closed during the period of a lapse in appropriations.”
“This means that the majority of National Park sites will be closed completely to public access,” according to the plan. “Areas that by their nature are physically accessible to the public will face significantly reduced visitor services. Accordingly, the public will be encouraged not to visit National Park sites during the period of lapse in appropriations.”
Travel times may also be affected. While a shutdown would not affect airlines, U.S. Transportation Security Administration employees and air traffic controllers will be forced to work without pay.
St. Croix Source
Local news
