Deputy Prime Minister Sobyanin and other government officials discussed a report by the Ministry of Economic Development containing additional proposals for reforming export control mechanisms for high-tech goods.

The report by the Ministry of Economic Development stated that the government's export control policies are intended to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and corresponding delivery systems, control the export of military and military/civilian-use products, and combat international terrorism. Current export control policies apply to all high-tech and science-intensive products.

Nevertheless, export control policies create formidable administrative barriers for high-tech exports. Private companies complain that certification procedures for controlled goods increase prices and delay exports, thus undermining these companies' competitiveness.

Major export control problems include the following:

1. Russia's competitors in international high-tech markets have simplified export mechanisms for the export of certain products to countries that comply in their domestic and foreign policies with widely recognised international law regarding the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and corresponding delivery systems. Russia has not yet simplified corresponding export mechanisms.

2. At present, every transaction involving non-controlled products that have the same general technical names or trade classification codes for international export as specific controlled products requires either confirmation that the products in question are not subject to export control (a paid service), or a certificate from the Federal Service for Technical and Export Control regarding the non-applicability of non-tariff regulation.

Only companies with their own in-house export control services have the right to carry out such confirmation procedures independently.

3. At present, there are only 21 Russian companies with their own in-house export control services, and the procedures for accrediting such export control services are structured in such a way that only major companies can attempt to apply for said accreditation. Moreover, the accreditation procedures do not offer explicit criteria by which companies can assess their own in-house export control services for accreditation.

The report by the Ministry of Economic Development also envisages measures to reform current export control mechanisms, in particular:

- simplifying the procedure for confirming that specific products are not subject to export controls, i.e. products whose name and/or function coincides with those of controlled products but whose technical characteristics render the controlled-product designation inapplicable. This could be accomplished, for example, by requiring that such products be subject to confirmation only once;
- creating and continually updating a database that could be used to identify characteristics of products that are not liable to export prohibitions or limitations, and making this information accessible on the internet;
- establishing inter-agency cooperation mechanisms in order to create a unified system of permits for the export of dual-use products;
- simplifying authorisation procedures for the export of certain controlled products to countries complying with widely recognised international law regarding the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and corresponding delivery systems, as well as international export control law; and
- clarifying requirements, conditions and criteria for state accreditation of private companies' in-house export control programmes in order to expand the use of such programmes.

Following the discussion of the report by the Ministry of Economic Development, Deputy Prime Minister Sobyanin and other government officials at the meeting issued a decision charging the appropriate federal executive bodies with preparing and submitting to the government of the Russian Federation a draft government decree that would adopt an action plan to improve customs administration policies for high-tech exports, as well as export control mechanisms for such exports.

- The commission also discussed the draft federal law amending the Federal Law on Technical Regulation, which was previously prepared by the Ministry of Trade and Industry. The draft federal law clarifies certain provisions of the Federal Law on Technical Regulation, brings the Federal Law on Technical Regulation into compliance with international law and simplifies confirmation of compliance procedures.

In order to achieve transition to a European system for the formulation of technical regulations, the draft federal law would also include general safety standards within the technical regulations, as well as specific safety requirements within the general safety standards.

As part of the efforts to establish a unified national system of accreditation based on international and European precedents, the draft law would also vest the federal government with the powers to establish a national accreditation agency.

According to the draft law, the proposed national accreditation agency would have the following powers:

- accrediting testing facilities and certification agencies;
- issuing, suspending and terminating accreditation certificates;
- ensuring compliance of certification agencies and accredited testing facilities with the aforementioned requirements;
- maintaining a unified register of accredited certification agencies, testing facilities, accreditation specialists and technical experts;
- appraising accreditation specialists and taking part in the preparation of the curricula for educational institutions providing professional training for said accreditation specialists;
- joining international accreditation organisations;
- working with foreign countries' national accreditation agencies;
- providing information to applicants on accreditation rules and procedures; and
- formulating a procedure for responding to complaints regarding the action (or inaction) of certification agencies and accredited testing facilities.

In order to ensure that provisional standards and private companies' own standards are used in assessing the compliance of innovative and other types of products, the draft law envisages a new set of preliminary national standard that would be approved by the national standardisation agency for a period of two to five years and adopted according to a simplified procedure. The preliminary national standards would remain valid until the adoption of appropriate national standards. The draft law also establishes a mechanism for the application of the preliminary national standards.

The draft law specifies regulations governing the content of the technical documentation needed to ensure that products comply with relevant technical regulations.

The draft law supplements the principles of technical regulation with the principles of the applicant's free choice of standardisation acts applicable to the assessment of product compliance with technical regulations, and provides opportunities for the mutual recognition of assessments of compliance and the results of examinations, tests and measurements.

The draft law also gives equal legal force to all technical regulations, irrespective of the manner in which they were adopted (federal law, decree of the president of the Russian Federation, executive order of the government of the Russian Federation, or bylaw of the federal technical regulation agency).

The commission largely endorsed the draft law, and charged the Ministry of Trade and Industry to include an amendment to the Federal Law on Technical Regulation that would promote transition to a system based on notification (declaration) of compliance and allow for the declaration of compliance to be submitted electronically. Finally, the commission recommended that the transition to declaration of compliance should be accompanied by increased liability for fraudulent declarations.