Business

In Bid To Expedite Clearance At Territory's Ports, Mapp Includes $750,000 In Budget For Additional Customs Agents

ST. THOMAS -- Territory's chief executive revealed on Monday during a press conference here that he included $750,000 in the fiscal year 2018 budget to pay for six more Customs and Border Protection (C.B.P.) agents to work at the territory's ports. The announcement follows a grim assessment of the USVI's cruise line sector, where experts in the cruise business spoke in blunt terms about the territory's outlook, and why cruise ships were choosing other ports instead of Charlotte Amalie -- a reality that has led to the decline of ships through 2018 in the USVI. The funds to hire the new agents, though a small part of addressing the territory's attraction problem, will nonetheless help in critical ways, according to the governor. The territory would be able to take advantage of the one to fourteen-day cruises in the Caribbean that want to come to St. Thomas, but cannot because the length of time it takes to clear these passengers would be too lengthy, as the passe...