A representative from the European Commission has asked Vietnam to take more drastic action to prevent its fishermen from operating illegally in other countries’ waters.
Director for the Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries’ International Ocean Governance and Sustainable Fisheries of the E.C. Veronika Veits said Vietnam’s illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing will be the key point for the E.C. to consider lifting the yellow card on Vietnam.
Veits made the statement during a meeting with Vietnam Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung in Hanoi on Thursday, 14 November, according to a Vietnamese government statement.
Veits and other E.C. inspectors were in Vietnam from 5 to 14 November to evaluate the yellow card imposed on the country's seafood industry two years ago.
Veits informed the deputy prime minister the E.C. delegation had held a number of working sessions with relevant ministries, agencies, and coastal localities in the past 10 days, during which both sides information in a straightforward and transparent way. She lauded Vietnam for building a legal framework in line with international practices to address the issue of IUU fishing, including the Fisheries Law and guideline documents.
The E.C. official recommended the central government, ministries, agencies, and localities continue to abide by existing laws and that the governments at the central and provincial level work harder to enhance legal enforcement at the grassroots level. To effectively combat IUU fishing, Vietnam must install monitoring devices on more fishing vessels, especially on large-scale ones, Veits added.
Veits said she backed Dung’s idea to restructure the country’s fleets of fishing vessels and encourage local fishermen to switch to aquaculture. Dung said that Vietnam supports the development of a modern, sustainable and responsible fisheries sector, and is working to try to end IUU fishing. He proposed the E.C. support cooperation with Vietnam in capacity improvement, technical assistance, and raising awareness of the harm IUU fishing causes to local fishermen. He also called on the E.C. to lift its yellow card, given its efforts to make improvements.
The yellow card was imposed on Vietnam in October 2017, and since then, the E.C. has been conducting a review of Vietnam’s fisheries and seafood-related policies to determine which route it will take out of three options available: Maintaining the country’s yellow card status; issuing a red card, which would result in a ban on all seafood imports from Vietnam; or rescinding the yellow card and allowing the country to resume normal trading relations with the European Union.
The commission’s carding system is the E.U.’s main tool in the fight against illegal fishing. It encourages countries to work with the commission to improve their fisheries governance and retain access to E.U. markets.
Photo courtesy of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
