MTAG: EXBS IN TAIWAN

UNCLAS TAIPEI 000229 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP/TC AND ISN/MTR E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ETTC TW ETRD WCO SUBJECT: MTAG: EXBS IN TAIWAN ¶1. Summary: In the first of 12 courses arranged by ISN/ECC, a team of five instructors presented the Export Control and Border Security (EXBS) training course "Advanced License Processing II" to about 50 Taiwan officials January 22-26. The instructors praised the Taiwan officials' active participation in the event. Representatives of Australia, Canada, Japan and South Korea attended portions of the event. End summary. ¶2. In response to U.S. concerns, in August 2005 Taiwan agreed to an export control "gameplan" designed to strengthen its export control regime. As part of our commitment to assist Taiwan in strengthening its export control regime, an interagency delegation led by ISN/ECC met with Taiwan officials in Taipei, Tainan, and Kaohsiung in November 2006 to explore Taiwan's training needs. The Advanced Licensing course is the first of 12 training courses that ISN/ECC and the Taiwan Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOFT) identified in November 2006 as priority training needs. ¶3. Officials from Taiwan's Counter Terrorism Office, National Security Bureau, National Security Council, Customs, Industrial Park Administration, Export Processing Zone Administration, and National Police attended portions of the January 22-26 EXBS Advanced Licensing workshop. The five instructors included two State contractors, and one each from DOC/BIS, the ROK Ministry of Commerce, and the UK Department of Trade and Industry Export Control Organization. The opening session was attended by representatives of the Australian, Canadian, Japanese, and South Korean trade missions in Taipei. One instructor commented during the closing dinner that based on his experience presenting training in more than 40 countries, the training had gone exceptionally well, the participants were engaged, interested, and at an appropriate level to receive this training. Suggestions for Improvement: -------------- ¶4. In future EXBS training we'd recommend written translations should be into the traditional Chinese characters used in Taiwan and with the terminology used in Taiwan rather than PRC terminology. We'd recommend consecutive, rather than simultaneous translation. The interpretors had difficulty understanding the Korean speaker's accented English, and little of it was interpreted into Chinese. (Consecutive interpretation would have overcome this problem.) Policy issues should have been presented together on one day, rather than scattered throughout the week. Ad hoc changes to the agenda meant participants not attending the entire week missed sessions they wanted to attend. English language copies of the materials would also have been desireable as some participants asked for English versions. YOUNG