Taiwan is set to negotiate with the US on three agreements regarding border security issues as part of the government’s efforts to qualify the nation as one to which the US government would consider granting visa-waiver status, officials said yesterday.
Taiwan’s representative to the US Jason Yuan (袁健生) said the US Department of State recently suggested that the nation sign three agreements on sharing lost and stolen passport information, sharing information on terrorists and cooperation in cracking down on major crimes.
“We hope to meet the requirements [for the US’ visa-waiver program (VWP)] by next year, so that [Taiwan] can be identified as a candidate to be admitted to the program during the year,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) Deputy Minister Shen Lyu-shun (沈呂巡) said while fielding questions from lawmakers at the legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee.
The nation’s work lobbying Washington for inclusion in the US’ VWP was a main issue of discussion during the session.
Yuan told lawmakers that on his second day after taking office on Aug. 4, 2008, he visited the US Department of Homeland Security and was told that Taiwan had never been identified as a potential candidate for the US’ VWP.
To meet the requirements to be included in the VWP, the nation managed to cut its US visa refusal rate for this year to 2.2 percent, lower than the minimum requirement of 3 percent, a great improvement when compared with the 4.4 percent refusal rate last year.
Meanwhile, the government will launch a one-year trial program on March 1 to get more Taiwanese to apply for their passports in person rather than through a travel agency to mitigate US concerns over what it deems as a lax passport issuance procedure, a loophole that can be used by human trafficking rings to make fake passport applications.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
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