December 20, 2004 Press Release

SGMA Requests Government Enforcement and Partnership

After meeting with four Board Members of the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association (SGMA), the association’s executive director, Richard A. Pierce, called upon the CNMI Administration to partner with the industry in ridding the CNMI of stolen apparel being illegally marketed in Saipan retail stores and restaurants.

Pierce asked the CNMI Attorney General’s Office, and the AGO’s Consumer Protection Agency Office, CNMI Customs Service Division, CNMI Revenue and Taxation and the Department of Public Safety to organize enforcement efforts to stop illegal sales of items manufactured in Saipan factories that have made their way into bargain sales bins around the island.

Pierce stated, “SGMA knows these $3 and $5 apparel items have been stolen from the factories. They are being purchased behind the scenes, stores are buying them knowing they are stolen, they are selling them in the open, excise and business gross receipts taxes are not being paid, and legitimate retailers are being deprived of legitimate sales.”

SGMA believes that if the CNMI Customs Service Division’s enforcement officers are properly trained on how to identify this merchandise on display, and SGMA has offered to provide that training, they can stop the trafficking in stolen goods.

“Our shirts being stolen, taxes not being paid by the stores turning them over, and Revenue and tax is not receiving the receipts tax they deserve because the merchant isn’t reporting the transaction from front to back,” according to Pierce.

In letters addressed to the AGO, Customs and Finance’s Revenue and Tax, Pierce wrote, “We have already identified, and approached, four or five establishments in San Antonio and Garapan selling goods still labeled with brands that would never allow them to be sold without their permission. We want it stopped. The CNMI Government has to step in here. They are the ones losing the tax dollars, not us.”

He added, “We will inform the Government where they are being sold, train personnel on identification techniques and accompany enforcement officers on ‘sting operations’ where they can catch the vendors red-handed.”

SGMA believes that the enforcement work will net the CNMI additional tax revenue and lessen the demand for any stolen merchandise.