In order to ensure Vietnamese seafood products experience smooth entry into the U.S. market, NOAA has provided clarifying guidance regarding U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) requirements that came into effect 1 January.
In the summer of 2025, NOAA determined that 240 foreign fisheries, including 12 from Vietnam, do not comply with U.S. marine mammal protection requirements, determining that products from those fisheries would be banned from export to the U.S. by 1 January 2026.
With that deadline now passed, NOAA has offered clarifications responding to a series of inquiries from Vietnamese exporters, confirming that the new regulations took effect based on each shipment’s estimated time of arrival in the U.S. as of January 1, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).
A central pillar of the guidance clarifies the certification of admissibility (COA) process, under which requirements are triggered by specific U.S. harmonized tariff schedule (HTS) codes and the country of origin (COO) at the point of entry.
A COA is an import control document required by U.S. Customs to verify that seafood shipments are not harvested from fisheries prohibited under the MMPA. For a COA to be valid for electronic submission, it must be signed by both an authorized official from the harvesting or exporting nation and the U.S. Importer of Record, VASEP said.
NOAA clarified that while not all Vietnamese seafood requires a COA, admissible fisheries granted a "comparability finding" still need one if they use "flagged" HTS codes to verify the product is not from a prohibited species or fishery. Furthermore, under the MMPA, admissibility is determined at the species level using scientific designations. For example, while certain cuttlefish from the genus Sepia are restricted, Vietnamese small cuttlefish belonging to the genus Sepiella remain eligible for exports. However, because both types often share the same HTS code, a COA is required to verify that the specific species being shipped is permitted.
Regarding swimming crab (Fishery ID 2988), NOAA clarified that Vietnamese exports do not require a COA, as there is an ongoing 180-day reconsideration period following a lawsuit between the National Fisheries Institute (NFI), along with several seafood companies, and NOAA that was settled last year. During this window, NOAA will make a new determination on comparability findings, and the same temporary reprieve applies to swimming crab raw materials imported from Indonesia, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka for processing in Vietnam, VASEP said.
“The temporary suspension does not mean the risks have vanished. It serves as a ‘golden window’ to finalize documentation, strengthen evidence of compliance, and standardize traceability chains,” VASEP said in a statement.
The U.S. was the largest destination for swimming crab from Vietnam last year, purchasing nearly USD 67 million (EUR 57 million) of the product during January to November, 2025, which was up 15 percent year over year and accounted for 82.7 percent of Vietnam’s total swimming crab export value in the period, VASEP said.
Elsewhere in its clarifications, NOAA provided details on supply chain and inventory management, stating that existing documents like fishing licenses cannot substitute for COAs but that COAs can be signed by either the harvesting nation or the processing nation to accurately outline the supply chain. For raw materials processed into several smaller export batches, NOAA clarified that the weight on the COA does not need to match the original raw material weight but should instead reflect the secondary product’s export weight. Finally, NOAA clarified that it will rely on internal procedures and documentation reviews of harvesting and exporting nations rather than requiring pre-approval of national certification systems, VASEP said.
Enforcement of the new MMPA guidelines comes shortly after Vietnam’s seafood sales to the U.S. surged nearly 11 percent by value to USD 1.8 billion (EUR 1.5 billion) in the first 11 months of 2025.
