A member of American Samoa's house of representatives says he wants the territory to look at options for increasing trade in the region.
Representative Faimealelei Anthony Allen was among 40 Pacific parliamentarians in New Zealand last week for the Pacific Parliamentary Forum.
He said he was surprised to learn how much trade his fellow Pacific MPs' countries seemed to be involved in.
"You know it is just interesting because every country wanted to trade something to another country. We don't have a lot in American Samoa to trade to other countries but we import a lot. So that is something I need to look at and share with my colleagues back home."
Mr Allen said he also observed at the forum that whilst American Samoa's political systems and structures were completely different from most Pacific countries he still saw similarities around governance and the shared challenges such as climate change.