ST. CROIX — The British Virgin Islands opposition leader is calling for officials from the BVI and U.S. Virgin Islands to discuss the increases in BVI charter fees that a new U.S. trade report states are “significantly affecting” the USVI marine tourism industry before the U.S. government intervenes.
Myron Walwyn, leader of His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, Sixth District Representative, discussed the matter during the First Sitting of the Third Session of the Fifth House of Assembly on Tuesday.
“Regardless of who right, or regardless of who wrong, let us get a grip on this thing before it gets out of hand,” he said. “We may get a level of intervention that we don’t want.”
Walwyn said intervention by the U.S. government could result in negotiations that include other issues beyond charter fees.
“To us, we might just think about the fees, but to them, they throw everything on the table — our visa waiver access that we get from the USVI, our use of the U.S. dollar,” he said.
Walwyn called for a meeting with the USVI government to try and resolve the issue.
“I ain’t say to roll over and play dead, not at all,” he said. “But dead right and dead wrong is still dead.”
BVI Deputy Premier Julian Fraser rose during Tuesday’s session to express his disappointment with Walwyn, the Virgin Islands News Online reported on Wednesday. Fraser said the fact that BVI Premier Natalio Wheatley does not speak about the fee increases in the House of Assembly does not mean that he is not actively pursuing it. He noted two meetings on the matter with USVI officials.
“The premier is actively pursuing this whole matter,” Fraser said. “So, I just want to make sure that is clear, and I urge the members of this House that whatever you say or do, if it is not something constructive, to leave it alone because you are only damaging the territory.”
The BVI implemented new charter fees that took effect on June 1, 2025, increasing annual charter license fees for unlimited access to BVI waters from $800 to $24,000 per vessel, and daily license fees from $200 to $8,500.
Walwyn’s comments about the charter fees came after the release last December of the Sixteenth Report to Congress on the Operation of the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (CBERA), issued by the Office of the United States Trade Representative in the Executive Office of the President of the United States.
According to the report, the BVI’s adoption of the Commercial Recreational Vessel Licensing Act on June 1, 2025 increased the fees on foreign charter vessels entering the BVI’s territorial waters by up to 4,000 %.
“The changes are significantly affecting the marine tourism industry of the U.S. Virgin Islands, which is closely integrated with the BVI, including forcing USVI charter operators to close or relocate,” the report stated. “The USVI marine tourism industry supports as many as 5,000 jobs and contributes approximately $166 million to the local economy.”
The Virgin Islands Professional Charter Association issued a statement last June that criticized the BVI government for implementing the charter fee increases, suggesting more businesses and jobs would be lost to the BVI without immediate action from the USVI government.
Kennon Jones, VIPCA executive director, said at the time that the territory had already lost three charter companies to the BVI.
READ MORE: Three USVI charter companies relocate to BVI as VIPCA urges retaliation to increase in vessel fees
Project Fair Waters, a USVI-based coalition of marine and tourism stakeholders, welcomed the release of the U.S. trade report.
“For the first time, the President’s own trade office has put in black and white what USVI families have been living for months: the BVI’s 4,000 percent fee hike is not a routine policy choice — it is an unfair trade barrier that puts roughly 5,000 jobs and $166 million of U.S. economic activity at risk,” Kosei Ohno, lead of Project Fair Waters, said in a statement.
Project Fair Waters highlighted that the report notes the president may terminate, limit, suspend, or withdraw CBERA benefits when a beneficiary adopts trade-distorting measures that harm U.S. commerce. The coalition also noted the report cites several cases of expropriation or seizure of VI citizen-owned property by the BVI government. Project Fair Waters indicated that these findings raise clear questions for BVI’s airport financing, as banks, export-credit agencies, and political-risk insurers are likely to treat a negative CBERA report as a red flag, increasing borrowing costs and making long-term funding for the BVI’s coveted airport expansion more difficult.
“The message to BVI is subtle but unmistakable,” Ohno said in a statement. “You cannot ask global lenders to backstop a multi-hundred-million-dollar airport while the White House trade office is telling Congress you are imposing 4,000 percent fee hikes on U.S. operators and seizing U.S. Virgin Islanders’ property. The fastest way to protect your airport dreams — and our shared tourism economy — is to fix the charter-yacht problem and embrace a Greater Virgin Islands Sailing Zone.”
Attorney Michelle Meade, while speaking on behalf of Project Fair Waters, said in the coalition’s statement that the group is advocating for a Greater Virgin Islands Sailing Zone as a constructive solution. She described the proposed zone as “a fair, rules-based and streamlined framework that harmonizes charter operations between the USVI and BVI.”
In addition to the coalition’s advocacy, Governor Albert Bryan Jr. wrote a letter to President Donald Trump and members of his Cabinet last month to have the federal government intervene. The governor wrote in his December 4, 2025 letter that Project Fair Waters estimates that more than 90 vessels have shifted their homeport to the BVI since the new fees took effect. The governor indicated that the USVI economy could lose up to $100 million annually on a long-term basis because of the new fees, estimating the territory has already lost $14 million since the fees were increased. He noted more than 800 local jobs hang in the balance.
“As a territory, the USVI cannot negotiate international maritime access,” Bryan wrote. “Because the BVI is a United Kingdom Overseas Territory, this is an international matter — and one that requires the full weight of the federal government to resolve.”
Bryan urged the federal government take four actions — engage the UK at the highest diplomatic levels to discuss the BVI fee structure, have Ambassador Jamieson Greer — the U.S. trade representative — lead an immediate review of these policies and consider whether they violate the spirit or letter of trade fairness, evaluate BVI eligibility under CBERA, and convene an interagency task force focused on USVI-BVI maritime access.
“Let me be clear: we respect the BVI’s authority to regulate its waters,” Bryan wrote. “But this is not cost recovery, this is economic exclusion. And the result is U.S.-based companies being pushed out of a U.S. territory and into a foreign jurisdiction.”
The governor told WTJX last June that the USVI negotiated what it thought was fair after meeting with BVI officials on several occasions to discuss the charter fees.
“It’s only fair that they get paid for people to come into their waters,” Bryan said. “They’re really worried about their charter industry.”
Bryan’s letter to Trump shows a notable shift from cooperation to confrontation as he went from defending the negotiations to seeking federal intervention.
On the same day Bryan wrote to Trump, Delegate to Congress Stacey Plaskett announced that she met with Greer during a Ways and Means Committee roundtable session to discuss the Trump administration’s ongoing trade negotiations and their impact on the USVI. She noted that she raised critical concerns about the BVI charter fee increases but did not provide details about the discussion in her press release.
Wheatley, who recently defended the BVI’s charter fee increases as a matter of responsible governance and long-term economic planning rather than confrontation while addressing the House of Assembly, said engagements with Bryan and his delegation allowed the BVI to explain its policy objectives, listen to concerns, and reaffirm its commitment to constructive engagement.
At the same time, Wheatley made it clear that dialogue does not override the BVI’s authority.
“Cooperation does not diminish sovereignty,” he said. “The government of the Virgin Islands will always exercise its diplomatic and legislative authority to protect its economic interests and responsibly manage its natural resources. These reforms were not designed to target any jurisdiction, nor are they retaliatory in nature. They are a legitimate expression of our right to regulate commercial activity within our territorial waters in a manner that is fair, transparent, and intentionally aligned.”
