The Russian government is considering tightening control over the export and import prices for fish and seafood. Customs duties will be reduced from 1 September, as part of Russia's obligations to WTO accession. However, the government at the same time hopes to tighten price controls by establishing a center that will monitor global prices; and adjust customs duties based on the "real" value, rather than the nominal import value.
This tightening of control will take place through the establishment of a special center for monitoring of global prices for fish and seafood, which will focus on the calculation of their real customs value.
The need for the establishment of such a center is explained by the fact that starting from September 1 Russia will reduce the ad valorem rate of export customs duties on the exports of the majority of fish and seafood from 5% to 3.75%, and for the most valuable species, such as crabs, caviar from 10% to 7.5%.
At the same time new rates of import customs duties also come into effect. As part of this, duties on the imports of salmon and trout will drop from 10% to 8.6%. The most significant reduction will be observed in case of import duties on frozen herring, which will decline from 10% to 6.5%.
Despite the fact that the decline of duties will be insignificant to the market, according to experts’ estimates, budget losses, associated with the decline of export rates, will amount to 1.5 billion rubles (about $ 45 million), while from the reduction of import duties up to 2.7 billion rubles ($ 76 million).
It is planned that exports of fish and seafood from Russia this year will amount to 1.75 million tons, valued at about $ 3.3 billion. The major species are pollock (50%), herring (13%), cod and haddock (9%). At the same time imports are predicted at the level of 900,000 tons, valued at $ 2.8 billion. At the same time losses from poaching activities will amount to 30 billion rubles ($ 907 million).
Russian analysts believe that the establishment of a special body for monitoring of fish and seafood prices could be beneficial for the Russian economy. According to Russian Federal Agency for Fishery, there is a need to integrate the existing system of monitoring of world prices for fish and seafood into he operations of the Russian customs service.
At the same time, according to German Zverev, head of Russian Association of Pollock Producers, the establishment of such a centre makes sense if it is not controlling customs prices for fish and seafood