American Samoa's Congressman Faleomavaega Eni Hunkin has welcomed Samoa's move to switch time zones.
Samoa sits to the east of the international dateline, but from next year it will shift so as to be on the same day as New Zealand and Australia.
Samoa's prime minister says the move has been made because Samoa has more commercial and economic dealings with New Zealand and Australia as well as several Asian countries.
Faleomavaega told CNN the decision is a good move for Samoa.
"I know it was not a rushed decision, they must have studied the issue very thoroughly and I really think it's a tremendous advantage to the independent state of Samoa as far as having to do business transactions with the rest of our Pacific and Asian countries, so I fully support prime minister Tuilaepa's efforts to do this."
American Samoa's Congressman Faleomavaega Eni Hunkin.
