In June 2017, the Council of Agriculture (COA) announced amendments to "Imported Organic Agricultural Product and Organic Agricultural Processed Product Management Regulations", which allows the application review process to be conducted prior to the arrival of imported organic food products. This is in line with recommendations made by the Retail & Distribution committee in its 2017 position paper to remove technical barriers to trade for European food products. A series of new rules implemented by the COA since then has simplified the organic labeling permit application process for importing organic products, thereby giving consumers in Taiwan a wider variety of healthy, affordable and high-quality food products.