OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions - Hong Kong

Floor Speech

Date: April 11, 2013
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Immigration

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce S. 703 with Senator Hatch to fix a technical problem that prevents Hong Kong from joining the Visa Waiver Program. Under current law, only ``countries'' are eligible for the program, and Hong Kong is not a sovereign country, so a special provision needs to be added to the law to make Hong Kong eligible.

On July 1, 1997, after over 150 years of British rule, Hong Kong became a Special Administrative Region of China, retaining its own currency, free market economy, political system, civil liberties, and immigration policies. This autonomy was recognized by the United States and affirmed by Congress in passing the United States-Hong Kong Policy Act.

Today we have a robust bilateral relationship with Hong Kong, a global financial and trading hub, which was our 10th largest export market last year and whose trade ties are significant for many States. The State Department considers Hong Kong an important law enforcement partner in combating money laundering and eliminating funding for terrorist networks.

Despite our visa policies treating it separate from Mainland China, because it is not a ``country,'' Hong Kong is unable to be considered for the Visa Waiver Program. The Visa Waiver Program is an essential tool for promoting travel and tourism to America while protecting national security by allowing precleared business and leisure travelers from 37 countries to visit the U.S. for up to 90 days without obtaining a nonimmigrant visitor visa.

Hong Kong has secured visa waivers for its passport holders from over 140 countries and territories, including allies such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, and all member states of the European Union. Hong Kong has already extended visa waivers to American citizens. Our laws shouldn't be a barrier to do the same in the future.

As our largest industry, tourism is important to Hawaii, especially from Asia. Our largest source of foreign tourists comes from Japan, a visa waiver country since 1988. In 2011, domestic and international visitors to Hawaii spent $16.9 billion which supported 160,800 jobs in the islands according to the U.S. Travel Association.

I urge my colleagues to cosponsor this bipartisan, commonsense legislation.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT


Source
arrow_upward