Since 2005, Taiwan and the European Union (EU) have been closely cooperating on the protection of plant variety rights, especially concerning the distinctness, uniformity, stability (DUS) testing of Phalaenopsis and Doritaenopsis. After a decade of closely working together, Taiwan and the EU have formed a solid working relationship, resulting in remarkable improvements in the trade of orchids between Taiwan and the EU. In order to harmonize the technology of the DUS testing process between the two sides, the Agriculture and Food Agency, Council of Agriculture (AFA, COA) signed the Administrative Arrangement on Plant Variety Rights(PVR) with Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) on March 9, 2016, and worked jointly to recognize each other’s DUS reports in the future.

　　 The COA stated that under the framework of the aforementioned arrangement, when a PVR owner applies for new PVRs, the authorities (namely AFA and CPVO) would do their best to inform each other whether the plant variety rights in question had been granted before. The applicants are also encouraged to enclose the DUS report for reference. In response, the inspection agencies (Taiwan Seed Improvement and Propagation Station and Netherlands Inspection Service for Horticulture - Naktuinbouw) would refer to the counterpart’s report as much as possible in order to shorten the inspection and verification process. According to EU authorities, the EU is currently working to amend relevant regulations so that CPVO could recognize the DUS report submitted by the signing members of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs). Since Taiwan is the member of the WTO / TRIPs, the said amendment would prove favorable to Taiwan’s orchid industry. The COA would also continue to monitor the progress of the amendment and promote the mutual recognition of DUS reports so that breeders could be benefited from such while boosting the trade of Phalaenopsis and Doritaenopsis.

　　The CPVO and EU delegation visited the Taiwan Seed Improvement and Propagation Station on March 10, where they visited equipments and facilities used for moth orchid variety rights verification, as well as the current progress of the PVR verification. Discussions and knowledge exchanges were also held on orchid’s important traits such as labellum petaloidy which is an issue that concerns breeders. In addition, in order to speed up the development of orchid industry, the delegation attended the 2016 Taiwan - EU Plant Variety Protection Symposium held at the International Conference Hall of Taiwan Orchid Plantation on March 12, and shared the experience of current status of international cooperation, verification methodology, and harmonized the test guidelines and the DUS reports.