The US and Taiwan on Monday agreed to cooperate on a new program aimed at expediting travel between the two countries.
Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) Representative Shen Lyu-shun (沈呂巡) and American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Managing Director Joseph Donovan signed the cooperation agreement at a short ceremony at the AIT’s offices in Washington.
The International Expedited Traveler Initiative will eventually grant preapproved, low-risk travelers a fast track through customs and immigration. It will be known as the Global Entry program in the US and as the E-gate program in Taiwan.
Photo: CNA
“For more than three decades, the US and Taiwan have shared a strong foundation of people-to-people ties,” a statement released by the AIT said.
Since Taiwan’s participation in the Visa Waiver Program began in 2012, travel from Taiwan to the US has increased by more than 50 percent and the US now ranks as the fifth-largest source of tourists to Taiwan.
The new program is expected to go into effect before the end of this year.
A fact sheet released by the AIT explained that Global Entry streamlines the screening process at US airports for trusted travelers, allowing customs officials to focus on those they know less about, while Taiwan’s E-Gate program provides streamlined immigration clearance.
At this point, Global Entry is available to qualified citizens of the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Panama, South Korea, Mexico and Canada.
“It will measurably help thousands of travelers from Taiwan and the US — last year Taiwan had nearly 14,000 frequent travelers to the US, many of whom can benefit from access to Global Entry,” Donovan said.
About 150,000 Americans who travel to Taiwan two or more times in a typical year could benefit from E-Gate.
“This joint statement is just one sign of the deep and expanding ties between the people of the US and the people of Taiwan,” Donovan said.
“In the past 12 months alone, more than a dozen new agreements have been signed and many more are under consideration. We are very proud of this cooperation and even prouder of our ties to our Taiwan partners,” he added.
Shen said the agreement would allow Taiwanese travelers to enter the US with more “convenience and dignity” and without having to wait in long lines.
He said it would “hopefully” become operational within a few months.
In 2014, Taiwanese travelers made an estimated 413,000 visits to the US.
Shen said that if each traveler could save an average of 14 minutes as a result of the new program there would be a “tremendous” joint saving of time.
“This is another example demonstrating that Taiwan-US relations are now at their best since the Taiwan Relations Act was adopted in 1979,” Shen said.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification