| Article 1
These Regulations are established pursuant to Article 25,
paragraph 4 of the Act for Distant Water Fisheries (hereinafter
referred to as “the Act”).
Article 2
The industry related to distant water fisheries intending to
conduct the export trade of catches or fisheries products of
distant water fisheries listed in Appendix 1 shall fill in the
application form (format as shown in Appendix 2) and apply to
the competent authority with the following documents for
approval to be the exporter of catches or fisheries products
of distant water fisheries (hereinafter referred to as “the
exporter of distant water fisheries products”) :
(1) A copy of the National Identity Card of the legal
representative or the person in charge.
(2) The basic registered company, business or factory
information of the applicant downloaded from the website of the
Department of Commerce of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
(3) The basic registered importer/exporter information of the
applicant downloaded from the website of the Bureau of Foreign
Trade of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
(4) Business Operation Prospectus (as shown in Appendix 3),
which shall include the company's organizational chart,
manpower deployment, items for purchases and sales, contractors
for purchases and sales, risk management, etc.
(5) Code of Conduct and standard operating procedures (SOP) for
the purchase and sale of catches or fisheries products of
distant water fisheries as listed in Appendix 1.
The applicant as referred to in the preceding paragraph shall be
limited to the importer/exporter registered with the Bureau of
Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
The Code of Conduct as referred to in subparagraph (5) of
paragraph 1 shall, in addition to meeting the requirements of
the corresponding trading country on imported fisheries
products, include the requirements for the exporters of distant
water fisheries products stipulated in Article 6.
The SOP as referred to in subparagraph (5) of paragraph 1 shall
include procedures for purchase, transport, storage, processing,
or sales and shall be sufficient to trace the flow of catches or
fisheries products and the legitimacy of their sources.
Article 3
For any application document(s) that does not meet the
requirement(s) prescribed in Article 2, the competent authority
shall request the supplementation within the required timeframe.
Any application which fails to supplement within the required
timeframe or with incomplete supplementation shall be denied.
Article 4
The competent authority will issue the approval certificate of
the exporter of distant water fisheries products after the
application as referred to in Article 2 has passed the
examination. The approval certificate will record the following:
(1) Name and Tax ID Number.
(2) Operation address.
(3) Name of the legal representative or the person in charge.
(4) Approval number and issuing date.
(5) The issuing authority.
Any exporter of distant water fisheries products whose
exportation eligibility has been revoked by the competent
authority in accordance with Article 16 may only re-apply for
the approval of the exporter of distant water fisheries
products after the defect(s) found during the audit has been
corrected and the rating above “A” has been given following
the review conducted by the competent authority.
Article 5
In case of any of the following circumstances, the application
made in accordance with Article 2 shall be denied:
(1) The applicant does not meet the requirement stipulated in
Article 2, paragraph 2.
(2) The Code of Conduct and SOP do not meet the requirements
stipulated in Article 2, paragraphs 3 and 4.
(3) Three years have not passed since the exportation
eligibility has been revoked pursuant to Article 38, paragraph
3 of the Act.
(4) Five years have not passed since the exportation
eligibility has been revoked pursuant to Article 38,
paragraph 5 of the Act.
Article 6
Any exporter of distant water fisheries products shall comply
with the following provisions when purchasing or selling
catches or fisheries products of distant water fisheries as
listed in Appendix 1:
(1) In case that the fish species of the catches or fisheries
products is under the management of the international
fisheries organization(s), such catches or fisheries products
shall come from the fishing vessel(s) authorized by relevant
international fisheries organization(s).
(2) Catches or fisheries products shall not come from any
fishing vessel listed on the illegal, unreported, and
unregulated (IUU) fishing vessels list
promulgated by the competent authority pursuant to Article
13, paragraph 2 of the Act.
(3) Catches or fisheries products shall not be imported from
any country under trade sanction imposed by the international
fisheries organization(s).
(4) The supplying fishing vessel(s) of the Republic of China
shall not violate provisions stipulated in Article 13,
paragraph 1 of the Act.
(5) The supplying fishing vessel(s) of foreign flag(s) shall
not violate relevant regulations of the flag State(s) or
conservation and management measures.
(6) The catches or fisheries products purchased, transported,
stored, processed, or sold shall come from legitimate sources
and be traceable.
(7) Respective SOP in case of self-detecting or being notified
by a client or the competent authority of catches or fisheries
products involving in IUU fishing shall be established. The
SOPs shall include manners such as receiving notifications,
self-notifications, stopping or suspending transactions or
compensation.
(8) A management unit or personnel in charge of supervising a
nd ensuring the execution of the Code of Conduct and the SOP
shall be established or assigned.
(9) The purchase and sales information of each batch of
catches or fisheries products, checklist(s), annual internal
audit reports, and education/training records shall be
archived for at least five years.
Article 7
Any exporter of distant water fisheries products shall declare,
in the format as shown in Appendix 4, the information on the
purchased, sold, and stored catches or fisheries products as
listed in Appendix 1 during the preceding three months within
15 days after the end of each quarter.
In the event that a catch certificate has been applied for the
catches or fisheries products as referred to in the preceding
paragraph in accordance with the Regulations for Issuing Distant
Water Fisheries Catch Certificates, write-off shall be conducted
in accordance with such Regulations.
Article 8
For any exporter of distant water fisheries products whose
employees are 30 persons and above, a management unit shall be
established; for that less than 30 persons, personnel shall be
assigned, so as to be in charge of the execution and management
of the Code of Conduct and SOP.
The management unit or the assigned personnel as referred to in
the preceding paragraph shall receive, at least for 12 hours in
every three years, education/training courses organized by the
competent authority on combating IUU fishing.
Article 9
Any exporter of distant water fisheries products shall comply
with its own Code of Conduct and SOP in case of purchasing or
selling catches or fisheries products as listed in Appendix 1,
and shall conduct internal audit at least once a year. The
internal audit report(s) of the preceding year
shall be submitted to the competent authority for perusal before
January 20 of each year.
Article 10
Any exporter of distant water fisheries products shall cooperate
with the competent authority in the event of auditing the Code
of Conduct and SOP for the purchase or sales of catches or
fisheries products, and shall not evade, obstruct or deny.
Items and criteria for the audit as referred to in the preceding
paragraph are shown in Appendix 5.
Article 11
The competent authority shall, based on the contents of Business
Operation Prospectus enclosed in the approved application and
pursuant to the criteria listed in Appendix 6, categorize the
exporters of distant water fisheries products into high, medium,
and low risk level. Unless otherwise provided in these
Regulations, audits shall be conducted pursuant to the following
provisions:
(1) Audits shall be conducted at least once a year for the high
risk level.
(2) Audits shall be conducted at least once in every two years
for the medium risk level.
(3) Audits shall be conducted at least once in every three years
for the low risk level.
For any exporter of distant water fisheries products whose annual
average export volume of the catches or fisheries listed in
Appendix 1 is under100 tons in the recent three year, the
competent may not audit such exporter in accordance with the
provision stipulated in the preceding paragraph.
In the event that any exporter of distant water fisheries
products is reported to be involved in or support the transaction
of IUU fishing activities; or any anomaly appears in relevant
catch certificates applied by any exporter of distant water
fisheries products, the competent authority may conduct the
audit at any time.
Article 12
Before auditing, the competent authority may require any
exporter of distant water fisheries products to provide, within
the required timeframe, relevant information such as the
management for traceability of the catches or fisheries
products it purchases or sells.
The competent authority shall, after examining the information
as referred to in the preceding paragraph, draw up the audit
plan and notify the exporter of distant water fisheries
products to cooperate with the audit.
Article 13
In the event of field audit, the competent authority may
require the exporter of distant water fisheries products to
provide the following documents or information:
(1) Information on contractor(s) for purchases and sales.
(2) Purchase and sales contracts and documents proving the
transaction and exportation.
(3) Other documents and information designated by the
competent authority.
Auditor(s) shall keep confidential the contents of the
documents and information as referred to in the preceding
paragraph.
Article 14
Ratings of the audit are categorized as the following:
(1) A plus: No defect was found.
(2) A: minor defects are five items and less, or one major
defect.
(3) B: minor defects are six items and above but less than
12, or major defects are two items and above but less than
four.
(4) C: minor defects are 12 items and above, or major defects
are four items and above.
In terms of calculating the number of defect as referred to in
the preceding paragraph, three minor defects are equivalent
to one major defect.
For any exporter of distant water fisheries products that is
rated “A plus”, it may be exempted from the audit for five
years starting from the date of the completion of the most
recent audit.
Article 15
For any exporter of distant water fisheries products that is
rated “B”, it shall submit the improvement report within 30
days starting from the next day that the audit report is
delivered.
In the event that the exporter of distant water fisheries
products is unable to submit the improvement report by the
deadline prescribed in the preceding paragraph, it may apply to
the competent authority for the extension before the deadline.
The application of extension shall be limited to once and the
extension shall be limited to only 30 days.
For any exporter of distant water fisheries products failing to
submit the improvement report and complete improvements as
referred to in the preceding two paragraphs, the competent
authority may continue to require such exporter to improve
within the required timeframe till the completion of
improvements.
For the purpose of being deemed as improvements completed, the
improvement report submitted by the exporter of distant water
fisheries products shall be rated “A” and above by the
competent authority.
Article 16
In case of any of the following circumstances, the competent
authority shall revoke the exportation eligibility of any
exporter of distant water fisheries products:
(1) The exporter of distant water fisheries products is rated
“B” and has not completed improvements within the required
deadline for three times.
(2) The exporter of distant water fisheries products is rated
“C”.
Article 17
The competent authority may commission other institution(s)
to conduct audits and education/training courses of the
exporters of distant water fisheries products.
Article 18
These Regulations shall become effective on January 20, 2017. |