Increasing agricultural imports are a growing concern of some sectors of U.S. agriculture. These increases and the potential for even greater volumes of plant imports from non-traditional trading partners in the future, raise concerns about the possibility of accidental introduction of potentially damaging plant pests. In addition, given the diversity of potential imports, particularly in the specialty crop universe, analyzing risk and developing adequate, science-based measures to substantially minimize that risk is also becoming more complex. A need exists to enhance domestic agriculture's participation in official reviews of import risk assessments related to insect pest and disease risk and improve the transparency of the risk management portion of the process, in particular. In 2000, the U.S. deciduous tree fruit industry established the Tree Fruit Technical Advisory Council (TreeTAC). The goal of TreeTAC is to supplement internal USDA analysis with additional private and public sector pest management expertise in the review of specific tree fruit import requests, thus strengthening our nation's plant safeguarding system aimed at preventing the introduction of potentially harmful pests.