Following the signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) between the two sides of the Strait, through the cross-strait consultative mechanism, the Mainland China side repeatedly requested Taiwan side to establish rules in compliance with the “Required Conditions of Farms which Export Eggs of Soft Shell Turtles for Farming Use to the Mainland China”, and “Mainland China’s Quarantine and Sanitary Requirements for Importing from Taiwan Eggs of Soft Shell Turtles for Farming Use”. In the 5th consultation held in April 2014, the two sides agreed to establish registration system, for export to the Mainland China. To address the need of the industry, the measure of guidance is described as follows:

1. “Directions for Governing the Registration of Farms for Exporting Soft Shell Turtles to the Mainland China “ was promulgated in June 2011, and on the Directions the administrative rules concerning packers for packing goods transiting to the Mainland China were included. The Directions were amended to renamed as “Directions for Governing the Registration of Farms and Intermediate Packers for Exporting Soft Shell Turtles to the Mainland China” and promulgated in February 2013, to facilitate smooth export to the Mainland China.
2. To address the need of the industry, between 2000 and 2015, the Fisheries Agency provided a total fund of NT$54.384 million to assist the industry to establish standardized production procedure, and conducted the work of improvement in medication residues, monitoring of the sanitary conditions of farm environment, improvement of farm environment and certification evaluation to registered farms, in order to help the industry to meet the need of the Mainland Chinese market.

In view of the urgent need in improving the environment of farms, and to meet the existing conditions of the industry, the process of registration was conducted in a progressive and flexible manner. In the first year, the registration was conducted in a counseling nature, so as to enable the majority of the farms to meet the required standards for export, and afterwards, through annual evaluation process to improve the quality of farmed products.