On A Number Of Legal Issues, The Establishment Of The Chinese Fishing Boat Insurance System

Marine fishing is one of the foreign-oriented agricultural sector from which thefishermen can get more income as a basic production industry, while it is of highrisks and the highest mortality rate as it is apt to be hit by natural disasters and man-made accidents. That is why the commercial insurance companies gradually withdrawthe fishing vessels insurance business with the reason that "insuring more losingmore ,no insurance no loss", and accordingly the marine fishing operations are leftwithout sufficient protection. This situation is caused by the vacancy of governmentsupport policy to fishing vessels insurance and the absence of the fishing vesselinsurance system of international practice, which constructed a "short umbrella" for aso vast "risk market", and the sustainable development of our marine industry isaffected and our international maritime interests are not well maintained.Marine fishing has made great contributions our country for the food security,high quality protein supply and exporting for foreign currency as the basic productionindustry. It is not in conformity with the national interest of the country for themarine fishing to be insufficiently protected, for which reason the macro-regulationfrom the government is needed to give marine fishing subsidy. Fishing industryrequires big investments, takes long period and slow recovery on the one hand, andon the other hand it produces economical profits and the social profits at the sametime. In contrast, the fisherman has to endure all kinds of risks including the cost ofhis life in the production, while the lack of government protection means theconsumers in the market do not share the risks of the fisherman when they consumethe fish products, or that means the government has not transfer the consumer'sundertaking of such risks to the fisherman through the government, which makes thefisherman alone to bear all the risks. According to this analysis, the rights and dutiesbetween the consumers( state) and the fisherman are not in balance in the scope ofmacro-economic view, which is not a win-win solution and is adverse to the foodsecurity and maintenance of the national marine interests, and finally affects thefundamental interests of the consumers(state).How to make up an government agricultural policy in conformity with the WTOrules and to keep the internal competition capabilities of our fisheries economy hasbecome an urgent agenda after China joined the WTO and the fisheries get more andmore involved in the international economic circulation, which makes the modeorientation and system construction of the agricultural(fisheries) insurance a mainsubject of the agricultural insurance study at present.The production safety of our marine fisheries is not solved, which is not inbalance with the position of our country as a big fishing vessel state.This dissertation probed into the law issues for the establishing of the marinefishing insurance system with Chinese characteristics in an expectation to be areference for the establishing and completion of the marine fishing insurance ofChina by way of analyzing the history and the present situation of the marine fishinginsurance and making use of the foreign experiences in the field.This dissertation has three parts as the preface, the body and the conclusion andis arranged to probe into the main issues for the establishment of the governmentsupported fishing vessel insurance.The part one "The Present Situation of Fishing Vessel Insurance" has threesections. Section one "The Characteristic of the Market Economy" made a briefdiscussion on the function of the market in adjusting the resources, the necessity ofmacro-regulation when using the market to adjust resources and marine fishing as avulnerable industry requiring the competition under the government macro-regulation.Section Two "The Situation of the Production Safety of the Fishing Vessels"introduced the risks involved by the fishing vessels when operating such as vesselcollision, stranding, disastrous wind and sinking. The fisherman runs short of the lastresort for recovering production and normal life once the fishing vessel encounterssuch risks, which may bring about instability factors to the fishing area. As a countrythat controls the risks well, the United States of America had total loss of 130 fishingvessels and 31 cases of death every year on the average from 1994—2000 accordingto the statistics, while in China 536 cases of sinking and 418 death and missinghappened in 2002. The Chinese fisherman is mainly operating in small scale, whichweakens their capabilities of resisting the disasters. Section Three "The Problems Inthe Fishing Vessel Insurance" analyzed the causes why the fishing vessel insurance inour country is not developed, which are: (Ⅰ)The vacancy of macro-regulation;(Ⅱ)The Improper Policy of Taxation;(Ⅲ) The Incapability of the Fisherman toInsurances;(Ⅳ) The Commercial Insurance Run At Loss;(Ⅴ) Lack of detailed RulesFor Agricultural(Fisheries) Insurance.The Part Two "The Theory of Law Analysis of the Government SupportedFishing Vessel Insurance" has three sections. Section One "The Economical LegalRelationship in the Government Supported Fishing Vessel Insurance". (Ⅰ) The LegalSubject in the Government Supported Fishing Vessel Insurance System: 1.the state(state organ);2.fisherman(fisheries organizations);3.consumers. (Ⅱ) The RelationshipBetween the Economic Rights and Duties in the Government Supported FishingVessel Insurance System: 1.The Economic Rights and Duties;2. The RelationshipBetween the Economic Rights and Duties;3.The Present Situation Between theFisherman and the Consumers. Section Two " The State Plays the Leading Role InEstablishing the Fishing Vessel Insurance.(Ⅰ)The Economic Power of theGovernment;(Ⅱ)The Government Interference;(Ⅲ) Balancing the RelationshipBetween the Fisherman and the Consumer;(Ⅳ)Regulating the Relationship BetweenIndustries;(Ⅴ) The Government Supported Fishing Vessel Insurance and Its Benefit.Section Three "The Examples of the Other Countries For Our Reference".(Ⅰ)TheFishing Vessel Insurance System In Japan;(Ⅱ)The Fishing Vessel Insurance SystemIn South Korea;(Ⅲ)The Fishing Vessel Insurance In Taiwan.Part Three " Completion of Legislature and the Mode Design of GovernmentSupported Fishing Vessel Insurance" has three sections. Section one "The LegalBasis For Establishing the Government Supported Fishing Vessel Insurance.(Ⅰ) TheConstitution.(Ⅱ) The Law.(Ⅲ) Administrative Regulations.(Ⅳ)International TreatiesJoined(WTO). Section Two "Making Up The ".(Ⅰ)The Necessity.(Ⅱ)The Guiding Principle.(Ⅲ)Taking theExperiences of Other Countries.(Ⅳ)Taking Reference From the Relative LocalLegislatures.(Ⅴ)The Main Contents of the Law on Fishing Vessel Insurance:1.Confirm its Government Supported Insurance Position;2. Making up the Plan Forthe Government Subsidy;3.The Government Provision ofReinsurance;4.Coordinating the Taxation Relation;5.Making the Employer'sResponsibility Insurance Compulsory;6.Regulate the Fishing Vessel InsuranceOrganizations. Section Three "The Mode Design of the Government SupportedInsurance System". (Ⅰ)The Government Run Fishing Vessel Insurance.(Ⅱ)Constructing the Fishing Vessel Insurance Cooperative Bodies.(Ⅲ) Constructing"China Mutual Fishing Vessel Insurance Company.(Ⅳ) The Commercial InsuranceCompany Running Fishing Vessel Insurance Under the Government Macro-regulation.Finally, the author believes that we should make pace to establish the fishingvessel insurance system as an international usual practice under the present conditionof giving priority to the agriculture, industry nurturing back the agriculture andstrengthening macro-regulation from the government. The pre-condition to establishthe fishing vessel insurance system is the government support to the fishing vesselinsurance. Marine fishing countries like Japan and Korea regulate their fishing vesselinsurance by the legislature of the parliament and therefore their internationalcompetition capabilities of marine fishing are well kept. It is the basic way for thesustainable development of our marine fisheries to establish the marine fishinginsurance system, strengthen the macro-regulation to marine fishing industry,complete the legislature and to find out a mode which is suitable for the Chinesemarine fishing development. The construction of a harmonized society and the newcountryside needs the establishment of the government supported fishing vesselinsurance system.