Decision No. 2419/QD-TTg dated December 13, 2016 of the Prime Minister on approving the Scheme on control and prevention of acts of injecting impurities into raw shrimps and producing and trading in shrimp products containing impurities

DECISION

Approving the Scheme on control and prevention of acts of injecting impurities into raw shrimps and producing and trading in shrimp products containing impurities[1]

THE PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to June 19, 2015 Law on Organization of the Government;

Pursuant to the November 21, 2007 Law on Product and Goods Quality;

Pursuant to the June 17, 2010 Law on Food Safety;

Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 132/2008/ND-CP of December 31, 2008, detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Product and Goods Quality;

Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 38/2012/ND-CP of April 25, 2012, detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Food Safety;

At the proposal of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development,

DECIDES:

Article 1.To approve the Scheme on control and prevention of acts of injecting impurities into raw shrimps and producing and trading in shrimp products containing impurities, with the following contents:

I. OBJECTIVES

1. Goal

To strictly prevent acts of injecting impurities into raw shrimps and producing and trading in shrimp products containing impurities nationwide.

2. Specific targets

a/ By the end of 2016, 4 key shrimp-processing and -exporting provinces, namely Ca Mau, Soc Trang, Bac Lieu and Kien Giang, will make statistics on, and organize the signing of commitments to refraining from injecting impurities into shrimps and producing and trading in shrimps containing impurities for, establishments rearing, purchasing, preliminarily processing and processing shrimps in their localities;

b/ By the end of 2017:

- 100% of shrimp rearing establishments in Ca Mau, Soc Trang, Bac Lieu and Kien Giang provinces will sign a commitment on non-injection of impurities into shrimps before sale;

- 100% of purchasing, preliminarily processing and processing establishments in Ca Mau, Soc Trang, Bac Lieu and Kien Giang provinces will sign a commitment on non-injection of impurities into shrimps and non-purchase of shrimps containing impurities.

c/ By the end of 2018, to basically end the injection of impurities into raw shrimps in these provinces and nationwide.

II. TASKS AND PRINCIPAL SOLUTIONS

1. Legal basis improvement

a/ The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development:

- To assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with related ministries and sectors in, reviewing and proposing the Government to amend and supplement, impurity-related administrative sanctioning measures under the Government’s Decree No. 178/2013/ND-CP of November 14, 2013, on sanctioning of food safety-related administrative violations;

- To assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the standing office of National Steering Committee 389 in, promulgating the Regulation on responsibility and interdisciplinary coordination mechanism for control and prevention of impurity-related violations, ensuring adherence to the following principles:

+ To conform with the functions, tasks and powers of each agency as prescribed by law, specifically: The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall assume the prime responsibility for examination and inspection in the stages of production, processing, transportation and distribution in the market of shrimp products; the Ministry of Industry and Trade shall coordinate in implementation as assigned under the Law on Food Safety and the Government’s Decree No. 38/2012/ND-CP of April 25, 2012; the Ministry of Public Security shall assume the prime responsibility for collecting information from scout, and coordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Ministry of Industry and Trade in organizing interdisciplinary inspection teams to investigate and specifically verify impurity-related violations for handling in accordance with law;

+ To share information among sectors from planning to inspection and examination and notification of results for knowledge and coordination;

+ To strictly follow principles, professional processes, expertise and security regimes in inspection and examination activities as prescribed by law;

+ To respect for and promptly and effectively facilitate one another to ensure connection and mutual assistance for task performance;

- To assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with the Ministry of Industry and Trade and Ministry of Public Security in, requesting the Ministry of Finance to guide mechanisms for use of collected fines for administrative violations to serve the control and prevention of impurity-related violations toward permitting central and local agencies to use all of these fines for the impurity-related inspection and examination;

- To revise the Circular on order, procedures and methods for detection of impurities or promulgate a new one; conditions for temporary seizure and preservation of shrimp batches pending official results of impurity inspection.

b/ The Ministry of Public Security shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with the Supreme People’s Court, Supreme People’s Procuracy, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Ministry of Industry and Trade in, identifying offenses for acts of organizing and participating in the injection of impurities into raw shrimps and production of and trading in shrimps containing impurities (below referred to as impurity-related violations) and promulgating a joint circular guiding the handling under the Penal Code. In case, a corresponding offence under the Penal Code cannot be identified, the Ministry of Public Security shall coordinate with concerned parties in reaching agreement on a plan to add to the Penal Code the impurity-related violation as a new offence and report it to the Government for submission to the National Assembly to consideration.

2. Law dissemination, commitment signing, crime detection and reporting

a/ Provincial-level People’s Committees shall direct the formulation and organize the implementation of plans to provide public information to stakeholders on:

- Risks and harms of injection of impurities into raw shrimps and production of and trading in shrimps containing impurities;

- Methods of identifying shrimps containing impurities and reporting on impurity-related violations;

- Sanctions to be imposed for impurity-related violations once detected.

b/ Particularly for the People’s Committees of Ca Mau, Bac Lieu, Soc Trang and Kien Giang provinces:

- To direct the establishment of hotlines in related departments, sectors and People’s Committees at all levels to receive information and reports on shrimp impurity-related violations;

- To direct the signing of commitments to refraining from committing impurity-related violations and the announcement of lists of establishments having signed such commitments by locality.

c/ The Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Ministry of Industry and Trade shall coordinate with the mass media in publishing bulletins on injection of impurities into shrimps and names, addresses and handling of violators;

d/ Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) shall review, revise and improve the program on shrimp processors that “say no to shrimps containing impurities” and mobilize its member shrimp processors to join the program;

dd/ Societies and associations of other business lines relating to shrimp production, processing and export (local fisheries societies/associations, Vietnam Fisheries Society, etc.) shall disseminate and mobilize their members to observe the law on control and prevention of acts of injecting impurities into raw shrimps and producing and trading in shrimps containing impurities.

3. Inspection, examination and handling of violations

a/ Regular examination

- The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall organize examination of the observance of the regulations on control and prevention of impurities in combination with examination and assessment of food safety conditions of export aquatic product producers and traders and handle violations in accordance with law;

- The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with the Ministry of Industry and Trade in, examining shrimp producers and traders in observing the regulations on control and prevention of impurities in product transportation, circulation and distribution in the market, and handle violations in accordance with law;

- The Ministry of Public Security shall organize professional operations, information collection and scout to fight, prevent and handle violations in accordance with law;

- Provincial-level People’s Committees shall direct specialized agencies in conducting regular examination of the observance of the regulations on control and prevention of impurities in combination with examination and assessment of food safety conditions of local producers and traders of aquatic products for domestic sale and handle violations in accordance with law.

b/ Scheduled and irregular inspection

- The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall coordinate with the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Industry and Trade in, organizing specialized inspection under plan and on an irregular basis to detect and handle impurity-related violations;

- Provincial-level People’s Committees shall direct specialized agencies in coordination in conducting scheduled and irregular specialized inspection to detect and handle impurity-related violations;

Specialized inspection shall be conducted based on the collection and processing of the public security force’s information from scout and channels of agencies and administrations at all levels for receiving reports on impurity-related violations. Files of cases showing signs of criminal offenses shall be transferred to the public security agencies for handling under regulations.

c/ Intensified interdisciplinary inspection and examination in key months

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall direct its attached agencies to coordinate with related units of the Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of Industry and Trade in working out annual plans on interdisciplinary inspection in key months on an irregular basis.

Article 2.Organization of implementation

1. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development

a/ To develop plans on, and organize the performance of, tasks assigned under this Scheme;

b/ To guide and uniformly train and retrain in professional operations and methods to detect impurities in shrimps for the forces participating in this Scheme;

c/ To assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with the Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of Industry and Trade in, examining and urging the implementation of this Scheme in localities;

d/ To summarize information and report on the progress and results of implementation of the Scheme to National Steering Committee 389. To assume the prime responsibility for annually organizing review and evaluation of results of implementation of the Scheme and working out a plan for implementation of the Scheme in the subsequent year.

2. The Ministry of Industry and Trade

a/ To develop plans on and organize the performance of tasks assigned under this Scheme;

b/ To report to National Steering Committee 389 on the results of implementation of the Scheme as assigned. To annually coordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in organizing review and evaluation of results of implementation of the Scheme and developing a plan for implementation of the Scheme in the subsequent year.

3. The Ministry of Public Security

a/ To work out plans on and organize the performance of tasks assigned under this Scheme;

b/ To report to National Steering Committee 389 on the results of implementation of the Scheme as assigned. To annually coordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in organizing review and evaluation of results of implementation of the Scheme and working out a plan for implementation of the Scheme in the subsequent year.

4. The Ministry of Finance

To allocate current expenditure estimates for ministries and central agencies under the current mechanism for budget allocation for implementation of this Scheme.

5. Provincial-level People’s Committees

a/ To strengthen provincial-level steering committees for control of smuggling, trade frauds and fake goods (local steering committees 389) which replace previous steering committees for prevention of impurities;

b/ To direct related departments and sectors and local administrations of all levels in developing a regulation on interdisciplinary coordination and plans for performance of tasks assigned under this Scheme and organizing the implementation thereof;

c/ To organize uniform training and retraining in professional operations for inspection and examination and handling of violations for personnel of the agriculture, industry and trade, and public security sectors in their localities that are assigned to conduct examination and inspection of impurities;

d/ Arrange sufficient personnel and funds for the inspection and examination of impurities from their annual current expenditure source;

dd/ To direct the strict handling of impurity-related violations in accordance with regulations, covering the consideration and examination of responsibility of district- and commune-level administrations for impurity-related violations committed in their localities;

e/ To report to National Steering Committee 389 on the results of implementation of the Scheme as assigned. To annually organize review and evaluation of implementation results and work out an implementation plan for the subsequent year.

6. National Steering Committee 389

a/ To consider the task of “preventing acts of injecting impurities into raw shrimps and producing and trading in shrimps containing impurities” a key task of National Steering Committee 389 and steering committees 389 of ministries, sectors and localities;

b/ To direct local steering committees 389 in developing specific plans for prevention of impurities and direct local specialized agencies in examination and inspection of impurities;

c/ To conduct periodical and theme-based review and evaluation of the control of smuggling, trade frauds and fake goods, covering the “prevention of acts of injecting impurities into raw shrimps and producing and trading in shrimps containing impurities” for reporting to the Prime Minister.

7. Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP)

a/ To continue the program on “enterprises saying no to impurities”, notify the list of committing enterprises and closely coordinate with specialized agencies and provincial-level steering committees 389 in providing information to serve the inspection and handling of impurity-related violations;

b/ To coordinate with corresponding management agencies (at central and local levels) in enhancing dissemination to enterprises processing, agents purchasing, and establishments preliminarily processing, raw aquatic products, on observance of impurity-related regulations and voluntary commitment to “saying no to impurities”, avoiding doubts among enterprises in the realization of their commitments.

8. Societies and associations of other business lines relating to shrimp production, processing and export (local fisheries societies/associations, Vietnam Fisheries Society, etc.):

a/ To disseminate and mobilize their members to observe the law on control and prevention of acts of injecting impurities into raw shrimps and producing and trading in shrimps containing impurities;

b/ To promptly provide information on acts of injecting impurities into raw shrimps and producing and trading in shrimps containing impurities; to closely coordinate with specialized agencies and local steering committees 389 in the inspection and handling of violations.

Article 3.This Decision takes effect on the date of its signing

Article 4.Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies and government-attached agencies, heads of related agencies and organizations, and chairpersons of provincial-level People’s Committees shall implement this Decision.-

For the Prime Minister
Deputy Prime Minister
TRINH DINH DUNG