Oct. 8, 2002 – With the watch company Unitime packing up to leave St. Croix by the end of the year, two bills passed Monday by the U.S. House of Representatives may give some help to the beleaguered industry.
"The legislation is essential because it will keep the V.I. watch and jewelry manufacturing industry competitive" with foreign companies that "don't have to pay minimum wages or comply with other U.S. labor or environmental laws, even when all duties on watches are eliminated," Delegate Donna M. Christensen said in a release.
One bill would extend and expand a program giving watch and jewelry manufacturers in the Virgin Islands and other territories a federal subsidy equal to 90 percent of the amount they pay in wages if other companies are allowed to import watches to the mainland duty free or paying a reduced duty. The bill extends this "production incentive certificate" program for an additional eight years, to 2015.
Without this provision, there would be no incentive for watch companies to stay in business on St. Croix, Brian Modeste, an aide to Christensen, said on Tuesday..
The other bill would permit a drawback of the duty paid on articles shipped from the mainland to the territories.
Similar bills are expected to move through the U.S. Senate soon, Christensen said.
With Unitime's departure, Modeste said, the territory will have three watch companies left, along with three jewelry manufacturing companies. He said another watch company has expressed interest in setting up shop in the territory but declined to identify it.
Gov. Charles W. Turnbull said in a news release on the same subject that the watch industry employs around 200 people in the Virgin Islands.
A Unitime official said the company is closing its St. Croix operation so as to consolidate distribution from its corporate headquarters in Switzerland.
While the watch industry appears to be on the decline in the territory, Turnbull said, the jewelry industry had been on the upswing since Congress extended the wage credit program to jewelry manufacturing in 1999. He said four new jewelry companies have set up shop in the Virgin Islands since 1999, and another is planning to move to the islands "in the near future."
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