02/16/05 Taiwan`s next move?

U.S. government and fruit industry officials have been working hard with Taiwanese counterparts in an attempt to reopen their border to U.S. apples. You might remember the Taiwanese closed the border in December after Taiwan reported discovery of four coddling moth and moth larvae in U.S. apple shipments this season. Mark Powers of the Northwest Horticultural Council says what the U.S. is waiting on is a return of information and communication sent to Taiwanese officials. POWERS: We're hoping that they do send something back to the U.S. government indicating what, if any, additional information might be required and how soon they might be able to travel here and take that step to get the market reopened. The hope is that an official response from Taiwanese officials will occur some time this week. But part of the delay is Taiwan getting back to work after taking last week off in celebration of Chinese New Year. POWERS: Prior to that week, the U.S. government had submitted some information that Taiwan requested as well as inviting their plant health organization to send some of their officials to the Northwest this week so that they could visit and look at operations and hopefully reopen the market. Powers says while such a visit may not occur this week, he does expected Taiwanese officials to soon travel to the U.S. to investigate our procedures to prevent coddling moth and moth larvae in apples, and in turn, reopen Taiwan to our apples.