OREANDA-NEWS. November 29, 2012. The meeting addressed the issue of exempting from tax and customs obligations fishing vessels that have been purchased, built, or renovated but have not passed through customs registration. Fishing vessels that have been bought, repaired, or reequipped at foreign dockyards are to be exempt from VAT and import customs duties until 1 January, 2013. Arkady Dvorkovich gave these instructions to federal executive bodies, partly in order to work through these issues in the relevant bodies of the Customs Union and the Eurasian Economic Community.

The commission also supported measures strengthening the presence of the Russian fishing fleet in foreign zones and convention areas of the global ocean. The measures include creating educational programmes for foreign applicants, expanding scientific research of marine bioresources in prospective development areas of the global ocean, as well as intensifying cooperation with coastal countries and activities of international organisations that monitor and regulate the extraction of marine bioresources.

Shipping tariffs for marine bioresources transported by ice vessels along the Northern Sea Route were also discussed. Arkady Dvorkovich instructed the Federal Tariff Service to draft the new tariffs for ice vessels with a view toward making the shipping of fish products along the Northern Sea Route more economically attractive.