OREANDA-NEWS. November 25, 2009. The Expert Council on Agro-Industrial Complex at the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) discussed the main problems of regulation and enforcement of the laws of the Russian Federation, related to administrative barriers in agriculture (certification of agricultural products, introduction of technical regulations, providing paid services), reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

In particular, the Expert Council discussed the issues related to:

- The veterinary service,

- Mandatory conformity assessment of agricultural products with and export grain certification,

- Paid services in the sector,

- Conformity assessment,

- Plant quarantine.

Contributions were made by representatives of various organizations, including:

Tatyana Kolchakova - the General Director of the Union of Enterprises of the Animal Industry; Arkady Zlochevsky - the President of the Russian Grain Union; Natalya Ivanova - the President of the Russian Union of Juice Producers; Vladimir Labinov - the Executive Director of the Russian Union of Enterprises of the Milk; and Sergey Yushin - the Head of the Executive Committee of the National Meat Association.

The speakers drew attention to the administrative barriers in the agro-industrial complex associated with overlapping to control-and-supervision function of executive bodies, and particular shortcomings in devising and introduction of technical regulations. Businesses also heavily criticized the tariffs for paid services.

All proposals and critical remarks made by the members of the Expert Council will be forwarded to the Working Group at the Government Commission of the Russian Federation for Administrative Reform responsible for refining the structure and functions of the federal authorities.

As pointed out by Alexei Kozhevnikov, Executive Assistant to the Head of FAS Russia and a member of the Working Group: "Today we are effectively "reloading" the administrative reform. We will have to, with the help of the business community, eliminate overlapping of the terms of reference and functions of different government agencies, determine by law the list of paid services that the agencies must provide to the population, forbidding point-blank to charge individuals and organizations for all other services.

Provision of some (or most) government services (or a part of this process) must be automatic, without involvement of officials. Entrepreneurs and ordinary citizens must be able to freely find information at the web-sites of relevant government authorities, and file documents using an electronic document management system. That is, minimum contacts with officials and clear documents handling procedures".

Finally, members of the Expert Council approved changes to the Regulations on the Expert Council on Agro-Industrial Complex and its membership.