Does Vietnam escape a yellow card?

Vietnam is trying to escape the "yellow card" ahead of time.Picture: Ha Phuong

Overall solution

According to Deputy Minister of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Vu Van Tam, related to the issue of how to get rid of the EC "yellow card", together with the Prime Minister's 732 / CD-TTg on blocking, terminate fishing vessels and Vietnamese fishermen illegally fishing in foreign waters. MARD continues to advise the Prime Minister on the issuance of Directive 45 / CT-TTg on some tasks and urgent solutions for ending the EC's warning of IUU to escape the "yellow card" within six months, before April 23, 2018. Shortly thereafter, the ministry also drew up an action plan and is currently working on a coordinated solution.

First of all is the group of institutional improvement solutions. The Fisheries Law of 2017 has absorbed most of the EC's recommendations, including the elaboration of sanctions for meeting the EC’s 9 recommendations. The second is promoting propaganda and training for fishermen, ship owners, enterprises as well as the state management system of fisheries to raise the awareness of the risk of the "yellow card" affecting prestige and honor of Vietnamese seafood products. The third group is focused on practical actions. Therefore, the fishermen and fishing vessel owners must meet the requirements, such as keeping a diary, installing cruise control equipment, submitting reports to the fishing port management agency and confirming the origin of the exploited fish for certification of export consignments as requested by the EU and other markets.

Besides, the management board of fishing ports and the relevant state management agencies should send people to ports to supervise with the port authority as well as connecting monitoring devices on board fishing vessels for 24/24 hour offshore monitoring of ships of 15m. Especially, the over 24m offshore ships must be installed with automatic monitoring equipment for control," said Deputy Minister Vu Van Tam.

In addition to the above-mentioned solutions, the next group of measures to be promoted by MARD is to focus on expanding international cooperation, including high-level negotiations with the EC, and reviewing nine recommendations by the EC for completing. It is expected that, after April 23, the EC will evaluate the changes that Vietnam has done in order for the withdrawal of the "yellow card" for Vietnamese seafood. In addition, according to Deputy Minister, Mr Vu Van Tam, Vietnam will strengthen the cooperation of ASEAN countries as well as other Pacific island nations and international and regional forums in order to regain the image and prestige of Vietnamese seafood. Last time, MARD’s leaders traveled to almost all Pacific island nations to share information and exchange experience to create understanding and consensus with these countries. We also stepped up our participation in international forums, stating that the Vietnam Government is not tolerant of illegal fishing activities," Deputy Minister Vu Van Tam emphasised.

Good handling of temporary import ships for re-export

Agreeing with the solutions that the fisheries sector has implemented to solve the "yellow card" problem from the EC, representatives of Department of agro-forestry and fishery quality control (Nafiqad), Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry had further comments: the measures are set out, the problem of fixing "yellow card" is quite feasible. However, it’s not far away from now to April, in order to really get rid of the "yellow card" and back to the "green card", it needs more drastic action at the deployment level.

Regarding this issue, Mr Duong Van The, Deputy Director General of the Veterinary Department (MARD), said that the EC’s punishment with the "yellow card" was a new issue in 2017, which shows the coordination between the Directorate of Fisheries and the Department of Animal Health is not good. In 2018, after receiving full feedback from the EC, it is hoped that the coordination will be better, especially in the detection and treatment of IUU fishing vessels entering Vietnam in the form of temporary import for re-export. "When there are ships in violation of the goods being brought into Vietnam, the Directorate of Fisheries has to try its best to detect it immediately, coordinate with specialized units to deal with the problem. In addition, the point to consider further is when the ship detection is thoroughly handled. Over time, this issue has not come up with a final solution," he said. Responding to Mr Duong Van The’s idea, Deputy Director General of Fisheries Nguyen Ngoc Oai stated that when the issue is clear, from his point of view, recommended DAH directly to advise leaders M & A for processing.

Around the issue of IUU-bound vessels in Vietnam, Vice Minister Vu Van Tam said: The major point, most importantly, is that although ships are aware of IUU's in the form of temporary import into Vietnam for re-export to China, we can not prevent it. Normally, once a ship has entered, the authorities can only make a discovery when goods are exported to China. Therefore, in discussing, proposing and consulting, it is important for the units to specify how the two approaches will prevent and handle these ships.