Periodically, Mr. Chairman, we do review the visa status of various countries. We have visa requirements. IRPA's default position is that all foreign nationals require visas to come to Canada, unless we grant nationals from a particular country with a special exemption based on certain objective criteria that we use to assess the prospect of a visa exemption, such as the refusal rate in applications for temporary resident visas; the rate of immigration violations; the number of asylum claims filed in Canada; security of that country's passports; bilateral cooperation on returns and removals of people subject to deportation; information on lost and stolen passports, the sharing of that information; national security issues generally speaking; as well as bilateral cooperation between the authority that issues the travel documents in Canada, in this case TECO, I suppose, the Taiwanese Economic Cultural Office, and passport production, issuance, and distribution processes.
We looked at the criteria, and Taiwan passed with flying colours. They had a very low visa rejection rate. I think it was in the range of 1% or 2%, which means that 98% were being accepted. So we felt it was a very low risk, and frankly, we believe the change will increase travel and tourism.
I would note that the United Kingdom granted Taiwan a visa exemption two years ago, and there have been little or no problems.