Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Atoa o Samoa talks are scheduled to be hosted by the American Samoa Government this coming April, coinciding with the Flag Day festivities.

After a meeting of government leaders and Chief Executive Officers between Samoa and American Samoa, it was confirmed by Deputy Secretary of Samoa Affairs Tauese Va’a Sunia II during the cabinet meeting yesterday.

The talks are scheduled to coincide with the territory’s Flag Day observance marking 123 years since signing the deed of session with the U.S.

The last meeting was held in October last year in Samoa, where the ASG delegation consisted of 88 people.

They included ASG leaders, the Speaker of the House, faipule, directors, governor’s special advisors, deputy directors and staff of the governor’s office in Samoa for the talks.

The last communique released of the Meeting said they covered a variety of issues including Climate Change, trade, departure tax targeting only passengers traveling to American Samoa, border protection, immigration matters and inter island games.

 “The Meeting agreed on the importance of promoting trade between Samoa and American Samoa focusing on strengthening exports and manufacturing between the two countries, and to support the diversification of local economies.”

The Meeting also observed that there was a need to hold trade shows to further promote trade between the two countries, and opportunities available for business investments and expansion in American Samoa.

The two Governments acknowledged the importance of tourism in the development of both Samoas in particular as part of COVID19 recovery efforts.

The Meeting recognized the significance of human capital development specifically for both countries through capacity building and professional development initiatives.

Since the meeting took place, there have been developments such as the decision of ASG to allow the import of meat from Samoa to American Samoa in addition to other approved agricultural products, such as eggs.

American Samoa has approved importing salted beef, sausages, eggs, beef meat, and cured corned beef — subject to prevailing standards and conditions.

(Samoa News notes that meat imported from New Zealand must meet USDA standards. It assumes that “prevailing standards and conditions” would therefore be of USDA standards. Another note of interest is the importation of eggs — American Samoa has a local producer, Taputimu Farms — and there has been no mention of their reaction to the import of eggs from Samoa.)

Last month, ASTCA and Samoa’s Minister of Communication and Information, Toelupe Poumulinuku Onesemo, signed a MOU in support of initiatives to ensure engineering and broadband challenges to meet the needs of our people competing in the new global digital economy.

The goal of the MOU is to foster and assure optimum mutual development in a framework for joint efforts in broadband infrastructure, telecommunications, local engineering capacity, and network resilience.

Tauese said during the Cabinet meeting that Talks are tentatively scheduled for April 12-13, in time for the Flag day festivities where the Ministers, government officials can enjoy the evenings after a long day of meetings.