EC will review and remove IUU “yellow card” in October this year

According to the Fisheries Surveillance Department ( Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development ), instead of this time, the EC inspection team will come to Vietnam to inspect the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing for the 5th time, but the inspection team has informed that they will postpone their visit to Vietnam to around October this year.

It is known that one of the reasons the European Commission (EC) postponed the inspection deadline and removed the "yellow card" against IUU fishing is that Vietnam has just issued Decree No. 37/2024/ND-CP amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 26/2019/ND-CP detailing a number of articles and measures to implement the Fisheries Law and Decree No. 38/2024/ND-CP amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 42/2019/ND-CP regulating administrative sanctions in the fisheries sector. The EC wants to review how Vietnam implements the law with these two decrees.

The main contents that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development requires relevant functional units to focus on implementing strong key tasks and solutions from now until October 2024 to remove the "yellow card" include: preventing fishing vessels from violating foreign waters, resolutely and thoroughly handling violating fishing vessels, ensuring that 100% of fishing vessels operating at sea must turn on journey monitoring devices...

It is expected that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will advise Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang to chair a meeting and inspect the anti-IUU fishing work in localities starting from June 2024. The interdisciplinary inspection team, including the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Public Security... will inspect Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan, Quang Ngai, Quang Nam, Da Nang. In July, the localities of Ben Tre, Tien Giang, Ho Chi Minh City, Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Soc Trang, Tra Vinh . In August and possibly extending to September 2024, the team will inspect the remaining provinces in the Northern region.

According to Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien, functional units need to closely follow the four groups of recommendations that the EC has made to Vietnam. Accordingly, complete legal documents; issue specific action plans; strengthen inspection and control of fishing fleets, ensure 100% of vessels are equipped with voyage monitoring devices, and vessels that do not meet the requirements will not be allowed to leave port or go fishing; issue an electronic seafood traceability plan, ensure there is no mixing of documents or fraud in certifying origin, and increase the rate of administrative sanctions for violations. Removing the IUU "yellow card" is an important and urgent task because the EU market is in the top 5 largest export markets of Vietnamese seafood, after the United States, China and ahead of Japan and South Korea.

Source