OAR 603-076-0052: Active State Supervision of Season Starting Price Negotiations for Seafood Commodities

To ensure that the Director is actively supervising the conduct of the seafood harvester association representatives and the seafood dealers under the regulatory program in accordance with the requirements of the federal antitrust laws and the Oregon Antitrust Act: (1)(a) The Director — at the request of a minimum of fifty-one percent (51%) of harvesters with active permits for the specific seafood subject to negotiations, and fifty-one percent (51%) of dealers by volume of pounds landed in the previous year of the specific seafood species subject to negotiations — shall convene duly elected or appointed representatives of the seafood harvesters and seafood dealers, at a predetermined location, date and time to enter into price negotiations with the objective of reaching agreement on a negotiated season starting price for review and approval by the Department. (b) The Director may schedule a series of meetings between the representatives of the harvesters and dealers. (c) The names and affiliations of the representatives of the seafood harvester and the dealers shall be provided to the Department at least two working days prior to the meeting. (2) The Director or the Director’s designee shall be present at and actively supervise all meetings between the seafood harvesters and dealer representatives pursuant to the regulatory program and, if necessary, mediate the price negotiations between the representatives at these meetings. (3) The department shall designate someone to keep minutes of all state-supervised meetings between representatives of the seafood harvesters associations or cooperatives and dealer representatives; minutes of negotiations shall be distributed to all interested parties upon request. (4) At the conclusion of the negotiations between the representatives of the seafood harvesters and dealers, the representatives shall by consensus take one of the following actions: (a) Submit to the Director for review and approval a negotiated season starting price effective for the time period agreed to in the negotiations; or (b) Notify the Director that the bargaining representatives cannot arrive at a negotiated price, and request that the Director establish the price based on all information presented in the negotiations; or (c) Terminate the negotiations. (5) Within two (2) days after the parties’ submission under section (4), the Director shall review the negotiated price and approve it as the established price, or reject the parties’ negotiated price and direct the parties to continue their negotiations if it is determined that the price does not reflect the interests of the State. The Director may request any information deemed necessary from the parties to review and approve the established price. The Director shall immediately notify the parties of the decision under this section in writing. (6) In approving the established season opening price, the Director shall consider the negotiated price reached by representatives of the seafood harvesters and dealers. The Director may also consider information available from the parties, including inventories; previous price-harvest relationships; production and supply factors; competitive factors; local, national and world market production and supply, and prices; the influence of imported product on prices, and any other factors the Director deems necessary to approve the established price.” (7)(a) The Director must approve the established season opening price before the parties shall implement the season opening prices effective for the parties which participated in and agreed to be bound by such through negotiations. (b) The Director shall not be involved in adjustments to seafood prices once the time period effective for the season opening price has expired. (c) However, if during the applicable time period effective for the season opening price, a majority of seafood harvesters and a majority of dealers who were parties to the negotiations request the Director to be involved in any adjustments to the established season starting price, a continuation of the supervised price negotiations may occur. Any proposed adjustments to an established season opening price or applicable time period require approval by the Director before they may become effective. (8) The established season opening price shall be binding for all parties to the negotiations who have agreed to the prices and time frames and other terms and conditions as specified and approved by the Director. (9) Parties to the negotiations shall reimburse the Department for costs associated with supervising and administering the regulatory program. The Department will provide the parties with an itemized list of costs associated with program supervision, and cost recovery shall be as follows: (a) Department consultative fees for Attorney General counsel directly related to supervising the regulatory program shall be divided evenly between the parties and reimbursed to the Department. (b) All parties to the negotiations will be assessed a fee of $100 towards the cost of state supervision of the negotiations. Costs above the total collected from the parties for this $100 flat fee will be evenly divided between all parties. (c) Total costs for the department’s supervisory role will include: $45.00 per hour for time devoted to administration and supervision of the regulatory program, plus associated travel costs (mileage at state rates, and travel time) and expenses (copies, etc.).