As proof, Chang produces a copy of a 1997 letter with approval stamps from the Cambodian Ministries of Finance and Customs notifying Jade Fortune of approval to import 40,000 tonnes of waste, including 11,000 tons of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and 6,000 tons of asbestos.
Chang is ambiguous regarding whether the deal ever went through, while Cambodian Envi-ronment Minister Mok Mareth described the possibility of such a shipment reaching Cambodia unnoticed as "impossible."
Currently the waste is stored in containers in Kaohsiung harbor. Formosa's Lin said that the company was making efforts to look for a waste handler with advanced technology in developed countries such as Germany to treat the waste.
Lin said that the deadline for storing the waste set by the Kaohisung Harbor Bureau was the end of next April.
However, Lin told the Taipei Times that customs authorities have agreed to exempt the company from a regulation saying the company should pay monitoring fees if its cargo is delayed from being removed from the port for more than 60 days. Had the regulation been applied, FPG would have had to pay NT$480,000 a day for storing 357 cargo containers since early June.
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