Last week, in a letter to House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, Governor de Jongh fired back at Puerto Rico for what he termed as a misinformation campaign as it related to the plans by Diageo to develop its distillery on St. Croix. 

On November 13th, de Jongh wrote that he felt compelled to correct the record and challenge much of the misinformation contained in an earlier letter to Rangel from Puerto Rico Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi:. 

“The USVI did not lure Diageo away from Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico was unable to renew a contract with Diageo.” 

The governor described legislation that Pierluisi introduced as a terrible idea and emphasized the negative impact such legislation would have on the territories. The Puerto Rico legislation, if adopted, would radically transform the nature of the cover-over statute, which forms one of the foundations of the tax relationship between the U.S. and its territories, for the first time in nearly 100 years. 

de Jongh wrote to Chairman Rangel that the campaign to curtail the Virgin Islands’ economic development initiatives sets a dangerous precedent for federal involvement in matters of local and state governments and companies:

“I am not aware of Congress interjecting itself to forbid one state’s economic development initiative or to require off-setting subsidies as compensation.” 

Before departing the territory on Tuesday morning for Washington D.C., de Jongh said this is not about a tit-for-tat with Puerto Rico over Diageo:

 “this effort is about my doing what the people of the Virgin Islands elected me to do…create economic development for the territory and provide more opportunities for our residents. I will continue to look for such opportunities as we look to weather the economic storm and at the same time, build partnerships that will allow the Virgin Islands to chart its own economic future.”

de Jongh said he will not let anyone get in the way and undermine the work that his Administration has done to further develop and expand the economic base of the Virgin Islands:

 “In the case of both the partnerships with Diageo/Captain Morgan and Fortune Brands/Cruzan, we are confident that we have worked within the letter of the law and utilized the tools that Congress provided us to modernize the rum industry in the Virgin Islands for both now and well into the future.” 

The governor said that he plans to continue his efforts to shed light on the misinformation that has been spread by Puerto Rico and its allies, including the false notion that the Virgin Islands lured DIAGEO from Puerto Rico. These efforts will continue to ensure that Congress understands that this successful public-private partnership will strengthen the Virgin Islands’ economy, put our fiscal house in order, grow a historic rum industry and keep the production of Captain Morgan rum within the United States for at least the next 30 years.