Two pacts away from visa-free travel to the US

MALAYSIA is just two agreements away from visa-free travel to the United States, with Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in Washington, DC, to sign one of them.

Dr Ahmad Zahid, who arrived yesterday morning for a four-day working trip, is scheduled to ink the Homeland Security Presidential Directive No 6 (HSPD-6), one of the statutory requirements for the Visa Waiver Programme (VWP).

With US Secretary of State John Kerry as the other signatory, the agreement is expected to be the highlight of Dr Ahmad Zahid’s third trip to Washington within a year to work on meeting the numerous requirements to qualify for the VWP.

Once all the criteria are met, Malaysia will join 38 nations, including Singapore and Brunei, for the visa waiver for a maximum of 90 days for tourism or business purposes.

The HSPD-6, which seeks to integrate information for use against terrorism, will be followed by the last agreement – Preventing and Combating Serious Crime (PCSC) – which is expected to be signed next month when US President Barack Obama visits Malaysia for the 27th Asean summit.

A PCSC agreement provides for the reciprocal exchange of biometric and biographic data and information for law enforcement purposes.

Speaking at a press conference on the Deputy Prime Minister’s visit to the US, Malaysian Ambassador to US, Senator Datuk Dr Awang Adek Hussin said with most of the criteria in place for VWP, visa-free travel to US could be implemented by early next year.

“When Dr Ahmad Zahid first came to discuss the issue, there were many requirements that were not in place.

“For example, we couldn’t implement the criterion to report the loss of a passport immediately to Interpol; our IT system was not in place yet at the time,” he said.

During his visit, Dr Ahmad Zahid and his officers from the Home Ministry will also meet with other US agencies such as FBI and CIA on security issues, business leaders from the US-Asean Business Council, and Malaysians here.

The Home Minister, who is accompanied by his wife Datin Seri Hamidah Khamis, is scheduled to meet his counterpart Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson to discuss bilateral issues and push forward the VWP agenda.

The other areas of discussion with senior members of the US administration include security cooperation in the area of counter-terrorism and trafficking in persons.

Malaysia and US enjoy strong bilateral relations in key areas of cooperation like politics, economy, defence and security.

For the period of January to July this year, the total bilateral trade between the two countries was US$19.35bil (RM81.2bil), an increase of 6.2% compared to the corresponding period last year.

Malaysia’s total trade with the US last year grew 7.4% to US$35.7bil (RM149.9bil), compared with US$34.5bil (RM144.8bil) in the previous year.