SEAFOODNEWS.COM by Eugene Gerden and John Sackton โ October 6, 2014 โ Russian shipbuilders have lobbied the government to make a major change in fishing regulations, that would require vessels harvesting about 350,000 tons annually to be either clear up their customs issues with multi-million dollar payments, or build new Russian vessels to keep their quotas.
Russian Rosrybolovstvo is considering imposing a ban on the catch of fish in national territorial waters for those fishing vessels, which were built or modernized on foreign shipyards and which were not a subject of customs clearance.
According to the Accounting Chamber of Russia, currently there are more than 120 registered ships in the country, which can not enter national seaports, due to customs issues, of which only four are newly built, while others are modernized. According to calculations of the All-Russian Association of fishery enterprises, total catch of such ships is estimated at 350,000 tonnes per year.
According to an official spokerperson of Rosrybolovstvo, imposition of a ban should stimulate renewal of national fishing fleet and will help to attract more ships in Russian ports.
At the same time, according to Vasily Sokolov, deputy head of Rosrybolovstvo, an alternative option may involve introduction of the 100% tax rate for the use of aquatic resources for such ships, compared to the current 15%.
In the meantime, Russian analysts believe that the new proposal was lobbied by some Russiaโs leading shipbuilding companies. According to Nadezhda Malysheva, head of Portnews, one of Russiaโs leading analyst agencies in the field of port business, implementation of such an initiative would be beneficial to Russian shipbuilding monopoly United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), which will receive additional orders, despite the fact that Russia currently experiences a lack of facilities for the construction and modernization of fishing vessels.
The same position is shared by Alexander Fomin, head of All-Russian Association of fishery enterprises, entrepreneurs and exporters, according to whom Russia currently focuses on building of small vessels, which are not suitable for ocean fishing.
According to him, the cost of customs clearance of each of such 'bonded' vessel is estimated in the range of โฌ1-3 million each, which will mean huge costs for fish producers.
The US has a similar law โ the Jones Act โ which prohibits landings in US ports of vessels that were not built in the US. But this has been in force since 1920, and was passed for a similar reason โ to protect US shipbuilding yards.
This story originally appeared on Seafood.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.