Fiji and Coos County enjoy ocean bounty and extraordinary natural beauty, fertile farmlands and abundant resources as well as high unemployment, poverty and food insecurity but that isn’t all they have in common. Fiji, like Coos County is attractive to resource extraction companies that object to paying their fair share of taxes.

Fiji Water, you have all seen it bottle and sold here in Coos County “…has long been embroiled in controversy on the island of Fiji, where the company has held exclusive access to a massive aquifer for nearly 20 years–all the while barring the water-starved Fijians from tapping it for their own use.”

Up until now, Fiji Water has paid an “extraction tax” of just one-third of a cent per liter. But now the Fijian government has upped the ante by charging 15 cents per liter for companies (read: Fiji Water) that extract over 3.5 million liters of water a month. As a result, Fiji Water plans to leave the island–or so the company claims.

Just like a similar drama that has been playing out here, Fiji Water has threatened to leave the island, again.

In the wake of the closure announcement, Bainimarama issued a stinging statement—his first public attack on the company—saying that “as usual Fiji Water has adopted tactics that demonstrate that Fiji Water does not care about Fiji or Fijians.”

Fiji Water went through similar turmoil in 2008 when the government tried to impose a 20 cent tax hike—Fiji Water called that tax “draconian” and shut down its operation, but was only out of service for a few days before Fiji’s cabinet yanked that idea. But Bainimarama’s verbal lashing of the company indicates that the government may not back down so quickly this time.

A company press release expresses the company’s outrage at having to pay for the common wealth and treasure of the Fiji people sitting atop a gigantic aquifer, so they threaten the government with job loss.

In Friday’s budget (11.26.10), the Fiji government announced that it will impose a 15-cent per liter tax on bottled water at locations where more than 3.5M liters per month are extracted. FIJI Water, which currently pays 1/3 of a cent per liter, is the only bottled water producer in Fiji affected by the increased tax; bottlers who extract less than this monthly limit will continue to pay about 1/10 of a cent, or 10,000% less tax than FIJI Water.

This new tax is untenable and, as a consequence, FIJI Water is left with no choice but to close our facility in Fiji, effective Monday, Nov. 29, 2010. We are saddened that we have been forced to make a business decision that will result in hardship to hundreds of Fijians who will now be without work.

[Nestle Bottled Water is looking to move into Cascade Locks, Oregon.]

Coos County, of course, has a parallel situation with a resource extraction firm, Oregon Resources Corporation. Like Fiji Water, ORC is unwilling to factor contributory taxes into their profit margins