July 17, 2007

Taiwan may take slightly longer to inspect US wheat cargo
 

Taiwanese authorities may take one or two more days to complete inspection of a US wheat shipment that arrived Jul 14, and determine whether it contains the residue of malathion pesticide, Hsieh Ting-hung, Taiwan's deputy director of food safety told Dow Jones Newswires Tuesday (Jul 17).

Inspection of the shipment is being closely watched by Taiwan's flour millers, as a similar inspection led to the rejection of a US wheat shipment of 9,000 tonnes due to the presence of malathion on Saturday (Jul 14).

Flour millers are concerned that further rejection of US wheat shipments may put off sellers and lead to a wheat shortage.

Hsieh said that at some point, the Taiwanese government may come out with a draft document stipulating standards for pesticide presence in wheat and put it on the government's website for 60 days for public comment, in line with established World Trade Organization regulations.

He did not indicate a timeframe for doing so, or the likely content of such a draft.

"So far, we are still in the process of evaluating the issue of pesticide presence in wheat," Hsieh said.

Taiwan does not currently accept any malathion presence in wheat.