Taipei has reached an agreement with Washington which earns Taiwanese diplomats stationed in the US different degrees of immunities from criminal and civil jurisdiction, and from obligation to provide evidence as witnesses when they act outside the scope of their official duties, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said yesterday.
This brings the level of legal protection for Taiwanese diplomats to an extent “very similar to” that the US grants to diplomats from countries with which Washington has diplomatic relations, said Bruce Linghu (令狐榮達), director-general of the ministry’s Department of North American Affairs.
The agreement was signed on Monday in Washington by Representative to the US King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) and American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Managing Director Barbara Schrage and it took effect immediately, the ministry said.
Taiwan and the US signed an agreement on privileges, exemptions and immunities on Oct. 2, 1980, to cover personnel in the Coordination Council for North American Affairs and AIT, which were established to deal with bilateral matters after the US changed its diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.
The new deal is not a revision of the 1980 accord, but a new one that incorporates “clear and concise stipulations” that accentuated the necessity to treat diplomats with due respect and courtesy, and the procedures by which diplomats are entitled to more protections and privileges, the ministry said.
Citing administrative procedures on both sides, the ministry said that the agreement will be unveiled only after the procedures are complete, in about two weeks’ time.
Linghu said the signing of the agreement held “significant meaning” for both countries to further develop bilateral relations because it was “a better safeguard” to protect diplomatic personnel in each other’s country.
“This enables them to exert their functions more effectively and thus to facilitate bilateral relations,” Linghu said at a regular news briefing.
Under the 1980 agreement, Taiwanese diplomats were only immune from legal suits and processes when the activities that they had allegedly committed were acts performed in the exercise of their authorized functions, or known as “functional immunity,” as opposed to the traditional rule of “absolute immunity” for diplomats as codified in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
Taiwan initiated a review of that pact in January last year after Jacqueline Liu (劉姍姍), then the director-general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Kansas City, Missouri, pleaded guilty to charges of violating a US federal labor law by mistreating two Filipina housekeepers.
Liu’s case demonstrated that Taipei and Washington had different interpretations of immunity coverage.
Liu was arrested by FBI agents in November 2011 outside the ladies’ room in the office building where her office was located and detained for two months before she pleaded guilty as part of a plea agreement that helped secure her release.
The ministry had protested Liu’s arrest, calling it a “violation” of the 1980 agreement, and demanded her immediate and unconditional release. It said Liu should receive immunity under the 1980 pact. However, the US said Liu was not eligible for immunity for “actions not performed within the scope of [her] authorized functions.”
A ministry official, who wished to remain anonymous, yesterday disclosed some of the contents of the new agreement, under which diplomats at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) in Washington are accorded more privileges than diplomats in TECOs located in 12 states.
The arrangement was in line with international practices that the diplomatic privileges of ambassadors are different from those of consular officials, the ministry official said.
Taiwanese diplomats and their families in Washington will be entitled to “functional immunities” and “immunities in general,” meaning that they will have “personal inviolability,” immunity from criminal and civil jurisdiction, and their residences and property will be inviolable, the official said.
For TECO directors-general and deputy directors-general, in addition to the immunities stipulated under the 1980 agreement when they perform their duties, they will now have “a certain degree of immunity when they act beyond the scope of their authorities,” the official said.
They will be immune from arrest or detention unless they have allegedly committed crimes for which a sentence of one year or longer may be imposed, another source said.
TECO personnel below the rank of deputy director-general have immunity only when they are involved in acts relating to official duties, but a new provision stipulates that they must be treated with due respect and courtesy, the ministry official said.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
MIXED SOURCING: While Taiwan is expanding domestic production, it also sources munitions overseas, as some, like M855 rounds, are cheaper than locally made ones Taiwan and the US plan to jointly produce 155mm artillery shells, as the munition is in high demand due to the Ukraine-Russia war and should be useful in Taiwan’s self-defense, Armaments Bureau Director-General Lieutenant General Lin Wen-hsiang (林文祥) told lawmakers in Taipei yesterday. Lin was responding to questions about Taiwan’s partnership with allies in producing munitions at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. Given the intense demand for 155mm artillery shells in Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion, and in light of Taiwan’s own defensive needs, Taipei and Washington plan to jointly produce 155mm shells, said Lin,
RSS