Taiwan is expected to announce fruit import restrictions soon after finding a peach fruit moth in a shipment of Japanese apples.

"We could announce the ban on Friday. After that, fruits which may carry peach fruit moth will not be imported," Yeh Ying, the council's deputy director of the Bureau of Animal & Plant Inpsection and Quarantine, told reporters.

However, Japanese and South Korean apples and peaches will still be allowed to enter Taiwan if both countries have reached an agreement before the ban takes effect, the bureau said.

The bureau found a peach fruit moth in a Japanese apple in 2003, and launched a lengthy fruit pest risk assessment to analyse the pest's life cycle and to determine its possible damage to Taiwan's fruit industry and ecology.

In March, the bureau notified the WTO secretariat that it would declare a ban on the import of peach fruit moth's host plants, and invited WTO member countries' comment.

The "comment period" will end on Friday, and in the effect of an agreement not being reached, the bureau will announce the ban and its implementation date soon.

"Japan and South Korea have submitted improved fruit quarantine measures to us, and hope to reach an agreement before the ban takes effect to allow continued export of their fruits," a bureau official told reporters, asking not to be named.

Japan and South Korea are among Taiwan's top fruit suppliers. Last year Taiwan imported 8,700 tonnes of apples and 371t of peaches from Japan, as well as 2,600t of apples and 150t of pears from South Korea.

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