Posted on: Monday, January 27, 2003

EDITORIAL
Cruise deal offers promise if monitored

A deal engineered by Sen. Dan Inouye holds the promise of greatly expanding the interisland cruise industry in Hawai'i.

But if the plan goes through, it will present local policy-makers with a host of decisions to make.

Inouye is pushing through a law that would exempt Norwegian Cruise Lines from restrictions found in the Passenger Vessel Services Act. This is a companion to the Jones Act for cargo ships, which prohibits foreign ships from operating between U.S. ports.

If Inouye's proposal becomes law, Norwegian would be allowed to sail between Hawai'i ports without the necessity of sailing to Fanning Island, which qualifies as a foreign port for the voyage.

While some cruise passengers like the tour to remote Fanning, the exemption would allow Norwegian to offer a greater variety of cruises as well as shorter interisland trips.

Clearly, this deal is tied to Norwegian's agreement to take over and finish two partially constructed ships that were being built in Mississippi for American Classic Voyages, which went bankrupt. Those two ships were backed by federal loan guarantees engineered by Inouye.

Under Inouye's exemption, the Norwegian interisland cruise ships would have to have U.S. crews and be subject to U.S. tax, labor and environmental laws.

This is critical. The ships should also be fully compliant with Hawai'i environmental standards. At the moment, standards designed to protect the Islands from unwanted environmental and social impacts are contained in a "memorandum of understanding" between the cruise industry and the state.

Whether or not the Inouye plan goes forward, the state should consider writing those standards into law as is done in Alaska.

At the same time, the state will have to be prepared to spend substantial sums of money in improvements to dock and shoreside facilities where these cruise ships visit.