Why has Vietnam not been able to remove the European Commission's "yellow card" on seafood?

Reasons why Vietnam has not been able to remove the "yellow card"

IUU fishing (illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing) is one of the most serious threats to the sustainable exploitation of living resources, especially to marine biodiversity.

Seafood is one of the traditional and key export products in Vietnam.

The European Commission (EC) issued Regulation No. 1005/2008 on establishing a community system to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU fishing activities, effective from 1/1/2010.

On October 23, 2017, the EC announced the application of a "Yellow Card" warning measure against Vietnam's seafood products exported to the EU market, citing the fact that Vietnam has not been able to control its fishing fleet, leading to an increase in Vietnamese fishing vessels violating foreign waters and the inability to control the legality of seafood products exported to the EU market.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development , despite actively organizing and implementing synchronous and drastic tasks and solutions to combat IUU fishing and achieving many important results that have been highly appreciated by the EC, Vietnam has yet to remove the yellow card.

The main reasons given by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development are: Firstly , the situation of Vietnamese fishing boats violating foreign waters to fish illegally is still complicated.

From the beginning of 2023 to August 8, 2023, 26 ships/166 fishermen continued to be arrested and processed by foreign countries, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand (not to mention the cases of 10 ships/36 fishermen being arrested and processed by Cambodia), concentrated in the provinces of Binh Dinh, Khanh Hoa, Binh Thuan, Ben Tre, Bac Lieu, Tien Giang , Ca Mau and Kien Giang. The EC affirmed that it would not lift the "yellow card" warning if this situation did not end.

Second , the work of confirming and certifying the origin of aquatic products from domestic exploitation, especially imported ones, still has many shortcomings and inadequacies, and has not yet met the EC's traceability requirements.

Third , handling of IUU fishing activities is still limited: Law enforcement, handling and punishment of IUU fishing activities in some localities are very weak, irresponsible and inconsistent; especially violations of illegal fishing in foreign waters, loss of VMS connection, crossing maritime boundaries...

In order to overcome the shortcomings and limitations as recommended by the European Commission to remove the "yellow card" for IUU, the Standing Secretariat issued Document No. 81-CV/TW dated March 20, 2020 on strengthening leadership and direction to effectively implement the work of preventing and combating IUU fishing; considering this a priority and urgent task at the local level; senior leaders of the State, National Assembly, and Government have had many meetings and exchanges with senior leaders of the European Union about Vietnam's commitments, efforts, and political determination to combat IUU fishing.

The Prime Minister has: Issued 03 Directives, 04 Official Dispatches, 03 Decisions and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh directly chaired 02 online meetings with relevant Central Committees, Ministries, Branches and localities; directly directed to commune/ward/town, district/county/town levels with sea of ​​28 coastal provinces and cities directly under the Central Government;

In addition, the National Steering Committee on IUU has organized 07 meetings to review and evaluate the implementation results and direct the continued overcoming of IUU with tasks and practical solutions in each specific period. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Standing Agency of the Steering Committee) issued many documents directing and guiding and regularly organized meetings, inspection delegations, directed, urged and guided localities to implement and prepare content and plans to receive and work with the 4th EC Inspection Delegation to ensure the best results.

The Ministry of National Defense regularly holds meetings to direct and organize the implementation of many solutions according to its assigned functions and tasks to prevent Vietnamese fishing vessels and fishermen from illegally exploiting seafood in foreign waters; periodically summarizes and reports results to the Standing Agency of the National Steering Committee on IUU according to regulations. In addition, relevant Central Committees, Ministries and Branches have actively implemented assigned tasks on international cooperation, information and communication, and arranged funding and resources to combat IUU fishing...

For 28 coastal provinces and cities directly under the Central Government, establish and perfect the provincial IUU Steering Committee, issue Resolutions, Directives, mechanisms and policies to improve the effectiveness of combating IUU fishing.

Specifically: Supporting funding for fishermen to install fishing vessel monitoring equipment (VMS), arranging resources at fishing ports to control the amount of aquatic products arriving at ports (both domestic and imported); strengthening the direction, inspection, and review of responsibilities of relevant organizations and individuals who have not completed their assigned tasks, allowing local fishing vessels to continue to violate illegal fishing in foreign waters as requested by the Prime Minister in Official Dispatch No. 265/CD-TTg...

Focus on handling IUU violations

Sharing the general assessment of the EC Inspection Team up to now (July 2023), Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan said that after the third inspection (October 2022), the EC Inspection Team continues to recommend implementing 4 groups of issues including: Legal framework; fleet management, monitoring, inspection and control of fishing vessels; traceability; law enforcement.

Accordingly, there have been positive changes. The EC has continued to acknowledge and appreciate Vietnam's political determination, especially the attention and strong direction of the Standing Secretariat, the Government and the Prime Minister.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has coordinated well with ministries, branches and localities to direct and organize the implementation of many active solutions to combat IUU fishing; well prepared the content, plan and working program with the EC Inspection Delegation, provided full relevant records and documents to ensure transparency, honesty and objectivity.

The situation of combating IUU fishing has improved a lot compared to the second actual inspection in 2019, specifically: The basic legal framework has met international requirements on combating IUU fishing and continues to be improved in a positive direction; Fleet management and installation of VMS equipment have had positive changes; a software system has been deployed to monitor and manage administrative violation handling activities in the fisheries sector; the implementation of control of imported aquatic products according to the provisions of the PSMA Agreement has overall improved better than before.

In the coming time, the solutions to remove the yellow card are: Implement strong and resolute measures to prevent illegal fishing vessels from operating in foreign waters; trace the origin of exploited aquatic products; control imported aquatic products, especially imported by container ships; focus on handling IUU violations; strengthen communication, improve coordination, and ensure resources.

In addition, Fisheries Associations, Fisheries Exporting Enterprises need to resolutely refuse to purchase, process, and export aquatic products originating from IUU fishing. Coordinate with competent authorities to provide information and strictly handle illegal seafood enterprises, legalize documents, assist and condone IUU fishing. Actively encourage members to be exemplary and strictly comply with regulations on preventing and combating IUU fishing.

In 2022, the growth rate of aquatic product production value increased by 4.1% compared to 2021, total output reached 9.026 million tons, up 2.7% compared to 2021. Aquatic product export turnover in 2022 reached a record of nearly 11 billion USD, up 23.8% over the same period in 2021. In the first 7 months of 2023, output reached 5,093.6 thousand tons, up 1.9%; of which: Exploitation reached 2,282.5 thousand tons, up 0.4%; aquaculture reached 2,811.1 thousand tons, up 3.1%.

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