Vladivostok customs bargaining with fishermen to trade advance clearance of exported fish cargoes for more realistic customs value

Vladivostok customs officers have recently met with representatives of the province's fishing companies and agencies to discuss new regulations for customs clearance of marine catches transferred by the fishing vessels via the nation's customs border to be in force as of 2 July 2009, reports www.fishnet-russia.com (www.fishnet.ru) with reference to PrimaMedia.

The customs officials have urged large fishing companies to disclose information on actual auction prices for pollock roe which is important for defining the customs value of the product. Besides, taking into account the fishermen's requests, they have decided to look into possible clearance of seafood prior to the ship's actual call at port.

As the issue has been the most difficult in cooperation of the fishermen and the customs, confirmation of the customs value for advance conditional clearance of production will become the main item on the agenda for the next meeting to be held in late May current.

During the pollock season A in the Sea of Okhotsk Vladivostok customs office has cleared 260,000 tonnes of seafood of which 76,000 tonnes have been supplied to the domestic market with the remaining volume shipped for export.