EC notice Vietnam the important points in order to remove “yellow card”

Vietnam has been making efforts to remove the “yellow card” from the EC. Photo: Hà Phương

During the visit by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong in Belgium recently, IUU Technical Working Group had 2 dialogues with IUU Division, Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries in Brussels, Belgium.

The Vietnamese delegation affirmed the determination of the Government and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) on the implementation of the EC's recommendations for the exploitation of seafood in Vietnam. The Vietnamese delegation updated Vietnam's efforts and progress in implementing the recommendations of EC over the past five months.

In particular, some of the key tasks include: Step by step improving the legal framework towards sustainable and responsible management of fishing and in compliance with international regulations. The Fisheries Law of 2017 has basically reached international regulations on the management of fishing. At present, it is focusing on the development of legal documents guiding Fisheries Law. According to the plan, those documents will be completed and valid at the same time as the Fisheries Law in 1/1/2019.

Furthermore, strengthening the supervision of fishing vessels, conducting patrols and controls on the sea, step by step preventing, reducing and proceeding to eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the area of foreign waters. After resolutely implementing solutions, the situation of fishing vessels and fishermen that went fishing illegally, was significantly reduced, especially, there are no records of fishing vessels violating around the Pacific island nations so far. At present, there are only cases where fishing vessels and fishermen have been arrested and dealt with in the overlapping sea areas because it has not been clearly defined between Vietnam and other countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Cambodia.

In addition, Vietnam has stepped up the traceability of its products in order to prevent the exploitation of raw materials from IUU exploitation into the production chain.

Promoting the propaganda widely on the mass media from the central to local areas. As a result, fishermen and authorities have been aware of IUU fishing and the sense of law enforcement has been improved.

Recognizing Viet Nam's efforts and progress in implementing measures to gradually put sustainable and responsible fishing, the Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries has clearly defined the problems which should be paid more concern in the future in order to continue to overcome the recommendations before the working group of the Directorate General come to Vietnam for assessment after 6 months of implementation.

Accordingly, in addition to continuing to improve the legal framework, Vietnam should step up the effective implementation of supervising fishing vessels on the sea through the identification of a roadmap for the installation of equipment to monitor fishing vessels; To manage the fishing fleet in line with the current status of seafood resources; effectively manage the system of registration and licensing of seafood; promote the management of fishing activities at fishing ports; To intensify the inspection, examination and sanction work to prevent IUU exploitation activities; Strengthen the sea patrols to completely prevent fishing vessels exploit IUU in foreign waters.

Representatives of the Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries also affirmed their willingness to share experiences in developing legal documents, plans and measures to combat IUU exploitation with Vietnam based on their experience in collaboration with 50 other countries that been fighting against IUU. In particular, for the two Decrees, one Decision of the Prime Minister and the Circulars are development to guide Fisheries Law 2017, they suggested that the Vietnamese side shall share the draft for better technical assistance in order to incorporate international regulations on fisheries management into sub-legislation documents.

It is expected that in May, the EC will conduct an assessment of Vietnam's achievements on implementing EC recommendations.