DELIVERY OF NON-PAPER: DESIGNATION OF THE ISLAMIC

S E C R E T AIT TAIPEI 001472 SIPDIS ISN/CPI, ECC E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/07/2018 TAGS: PREL PARM PINR ECON EFIN EWWT ETRD KNNP IR TW SUBJECT: DELIVERY OF NON-PAPER: DESIGNATION OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN SHIPPING LINES REF: STATE 104496 Classified By: AIT Acting Director Robert S. Wang for reason 1.4 (b) an d (d). ¶1. (S) On October 3, AIT officers conveyed reftel non-paper on the U.S. designation of the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Line (IRISL) and 18 subsidiaries under E.O. 13382 ("Blocking the Property of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferators and their Supporters") to the Department of North American Affairs of the Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Division Deputy Director General Michael Hsu emphasized Taiwan,s determination to implement the spirit of UNSCRs despite restrictions on its membership in the U.N. ¶2. (S) On October 6, AIT officers delivered the reftel non-paper to the Investigation Department of the Taiwan Customs and the Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOFT) of the Taiwan Ministry of Economic Affairs. Customs officials stated that they would be happy to cooperate with the U.S. in detaining suspect shipments by IRISL but requested U.S. cooperation in dealing with the final disposition of the detained cargo. Customs officials cited a detention of chemicals transiting Taiwan en route to North Korea several years ago as an example of how a detention did not work in the interest of Taiwan. Customs officials explained that the cargo sat in Kaohsiung port for several years and Taiwan bore the freight cost to ship the chemicals back to its Italian manufacture. Customs also cited a recent case in which an air cargo shipment containing arms was detained based on information from the U.S. and the shipment was sent back to Austria, the originating country, on the same day, with the logistics being handled by the U.S. Customs officials said that they looked forward to the latter type of cooperation on cargo detention. (S) BOFT officials stated that they would take appropriate action on export control-related items and send instructions to other agencies to take action on items related to their respective jurisdiction. RWANG