Up to 10% of regulations in the agricultural sector are illegal. The Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO) experts made this conclusion while conducting a rolling review of regulations. The head of the BRDO Food & Agriculture sector Andriy Zablotskiy said that during the panel discussion “State innovations in the agro-food sector” held in the framework of the “Ukrainian Agri & Food Innovation Forum ’16”.
According to him, now there are nearly 1.4 thousand various laws, resolutions and other regulations to control the agricultural sector. 152 regulation of them have been adopted in the USSR. About 10% of the total are illegal. Another 25% need to be revised immediately.
“The analysis of Ukrainian legislation we regularly conduct in accordance with the best EU practices has shown that the interests of all economic stakeholders – the society, business and the state – are often not taken into account when drafting and adopting the regulations,” the expert said.
Andriy Zablotskiy said that in most cases, there were no calculations on the regulation impact on the agriculture sector at all and added that the Better Regulation Delivery Office is working on proposals to eliminate these ‘gaps’ in legislation. He emphasized that BRDO experts were always open to suggestions from businesses, ready to work on them, inform the relevant ministries and departments about own position and participate in drafting relevant legislative initiatives.
“Today there is a need for an innovative approach to implement smart regulation in the agricultural sector. There were several deregulation waves, which abolished or significantly simplified more than 30 regulatory instruments, in the agricultural sector. However, hasty deregulation wasn’t good for the market in some cases. So it is important to it in a systematic and smart way now,” the expert said.
In addition, Andriy Zablotskiy said that Ukraine as a leading grain exporter in the world simply doesn’t not have the right to use the existing regulation adopted in the days of the Soviet Union. In most cases, this regulation is outdated and needs to be revised immediately, especially considering the fact that the Free Trade Agreement between the EU and Ukraine entered into force.
The expert encouraged to submit suggestions to improve the state regulation not only on the agricultural sector. After all, there are more than 9,000 regulations of various types, which have a direct impact on doing business in Ukraine, in five economy sectors monitored by the BRDO experts.