The European Commission is sending a delegation of experts to Vietnam to review progress made by the country, six months after it imposed a “yellow card” warning.
The E.C. issued the yellow card to Vietnam in October 2017, threatening the Pacific country with a red card – or total ban on seafood imports from Vietnam – entirely unless Hanoi did more to tackle illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
A European Commission spokesperson confirmed Tuesday, 15 May the working trip will take place from 15 to 24 May. It previously said in March that the inspections would take place in May.
“This mission follows up to the sending by Vietnam of the first progress report on the actions undertaken under the European Commission’s suggested IUU Action Plan for Vietnam, six months after the issuing of the yellow card in October [20]17,” the spokesperson told SeafoodSource.
Vietnamese Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong met on Monday, 14 May with the ministry’s Department of Fisheries to prepare for receiving the E.C. delegation, according to the department. The E.C. inspectors will work with the Agriculture Ministry, the Fisheries Department, the Department of Animal Health, National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department, coastal provincial governments and local seafood processors and exporters.
The Department of Fisheries has set up a special IUU office to work with the E.C. delegation and has all necessary documents ready for the meetings, the department said. It has already launched a fishery database system, the VnFishBase, which contains data of local fishing ports and boats, it said.
Another system, which is run by the Department of Fisheries Surveillance, will enable the authorities to monitor network-connected fishing boats operating at sea, a key measure to better the management of offshore fishing activities.
The Vietnamese side will discuss in a transparent manner with the E.C. delegation what the country has been doing successfully and what has not in attempting to meet the E.C. demands, Cuong said.
Photo courtesy of Ban va Toi Food
