Fishermen propose amendments to Technical Regulation "Food Products from Aquatic Biological Resources"

Around mid- February 2009 a Government meeting has been held where the questions of fishing industry development have been discussed. According to the preliminary reports, one of the main questions was the technical regulation in the industry. Earlier, on 28, January 2009 the State Duma (Lower House) approved in first reading the Draft of the Federal Law "Technical Regulation "Food Product from Aquatic Biological Resources". On a number of points the Draft has come under fire from the seafood industry players, reports http://www.fishnet-russia.com/ (https://www.fishnet.ru/) with the reference to Russian Pollock Association.

More specifically, All-Russian Association of Fish Companies, Businessmen and Exporters offered to introduce the notifying procedure of registrations of the companies, processing aquatic biological resources.

Russian Pollock Association has prepared the study "Administrative barriers in the fishing complex of the Russian Federation", where the analysis of the drawbacks of the current draft of technical regulation is given.

For example, the Draft contains a violation of the article 2 of the Federal Law "About Technical Regulation" as it introduces the notion of "registration of establishments which produce the products of commercial fishery" but there is no such notion in the Law. Another violation of the same Law introduces the notion of "identification number of the production process" and allows overlapping of the powers of the State inspection body and State certifying body.

According to the industry players, the fishing plants currently have to collect a multitude of permits in numerous control bodies which leads to "corruption tax" arising. According to the Head of Russian Pollock Association, should the Technical Regulation be made into Law in this edition, it would contribute to bureaucracy's further thriving. The Pollock Association offered to synchronize the work on Technical Regulation with the amending of the Veterinary Law.