Russian Government speeding up issue of vet certificates fish catches bound for export

With mandatory customs clearance of Russia's EEZ catch as of 2009 Russia's Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance Rosselkhoznadzor has circulated the necessary explanations to the industry regarding the resulting changes in veterinary control of fish, fish products and non-finfish products, reports http://www.fishnet-russia.com/ (https://www.fishnet.ru)/.

Namely, with the coming into force of the Part 3.2 of the Article 19 of the Federal Law dated 20 December 2004 No. 166-FZ "On Fishery and Conservation of Aquatic Biological Resources" (in the edition of Federal Law dated 6 December 2007 No.333-FZ), aquatic biological resources caught (captured) during commercial fishery in the inland waters of the Russian Federation, in the territory of sea of Russia, in the continental shelf of Russia, in the Russian EEZ and the products of their processing as of the 1st of January 2009 shall be delivered on the customs territory of the Russian Federation.

In order to make sure that the processing of the vet certificates should take no more than 3 hours (in accordance with the Russian Government resolution dated 19 March 2008 No. 184) the Russian vet body Rosselkhoznadzor has circulated its corresponding order (dated 28 November 2008, No. FS-NV-2/12089) between the territorial vet bodies and other Federal regional bodies under jurisdiction of Russian Rosselkhoznadzor and vet laboratories.

According to the document, the regional vet bodies shall before the 25th of December 2008 (based on the results of laboratory investigations issued in 2007 - 2008) create regional data bases of concrete fishing areas as regards the health safety of the aquatic biological resources as applicable to various species.

The Ministry of Agriculture has also introduced the corresponding changes in the Rules of issuing of accompanying veterinary documents (approved by the order dated 16 November 2006, No.422) in the part concerning the issuing of the vet form 5i while exporting the aquatic biological resources.

Based on the information to be provided by the exporters and the data base, the issue of the vet certificates (form 5i) as well as health certificates for EU countries and China for aquatic biological resources and the products of their processing without their landing on the Russian coast shall be carried out against a preliminary application of the foreign trade participants within a 3 hour period.

To create optimal conditions of exportation the Rosselkhoznadzor directed a letter to the Minister of Agriculture Mr. A.V. Gordeev asking to submit changes to the Administrative rules of Russia's Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance Rosselkhoznadzor about the issue of the permits of export aquatic biological resources and the products of their processing directly from the fish sea ports (customs control area) according to the following scheme:

- An exporter company shall submit the respective application to the territorial body of the Rosselkhoznadzor from the territory of which it expects to export (customs control area in fish sea ports);

- The territorial vet body in due term not exceeding 3 working days from the date of the exporter's application shall forward the corresponding petition to the head office of Rosselkhoznadzor;

- The Rosselkhoznadzor in no more than 10 working days period shall issue the export permit in question.