Is the ornamental fish industry only competitive if conservation regulations are excluded under the free economic pilot zone?

The draft special act for free economic pilot zones is still under review in the Legislative Yuan, but the Pingtung Agricultural Biotechnology Park's planned "International Transshipment Center for Ornamental Aquatic Animals" is expected to begin trial operations at the end of June. Quarantine and customs clearance will both be handled at the transshipment center, speeding up the time needed to ship ornamental fish. Ornamental fish industry operators hope the free economic pilot zone act will pass as soon as possible to relax the types of ornamental fish that can be imported.

The Council of Agriculture believes that simplifying export procedures and relaxing import fish species can increase the international competitiveness of Taiwan's ornamental fish industry. However, Yan Shenghong, a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at National Sun Yat-sen University, pointed out that relaxing imported ornamental fish species is not necessarily a way forward for the industry; more than 3,000 kinds of ornamental fish are already circulating on the market, "has anyone regulated them?" The Taiwan Animal Society Research Association, meanwhile, believes that Taiwan should not isolate itself from the global conservation trend in the ornamental fish industry.

International Transshipment Center for Ornamental Aquatic Animals to begin trial operations at the end of June