6 years of efforts to remove the IUU "yellow card": Determined to reach the finish line

Recommendations after 3 tests

On October 23, 2017, the European Commission (EC) issued a "yellow card" warning on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing for Vietnamese seafood and made 9 groups of recommendations for Vietnam to implement to remove the card.

Since then, the EC has conducted three on-site inspections in Vietnam to check the implementation of the IUU recommendations. Accordingly, at the second inspection, the EC highly appreciated Vietnam's progress compared to the first inspection, especially in monitoring, controlling, and supervising fishing vessels as well as efforts in deploying and installing fishing vessel monitoring equipment; efforts in managing fishing force.

Thanks to that, after the second inspection, the EC Inspection Team has shortened the recommendations to Vietnam to 4 groups. Specifically, including: Completing the legal framework; Monitoring, inspecting, controlling the activities of fishing vessels, managing the fleet; Certifying the output and traceability of exploited aquatic products; Law enforcement .

In October 2022, the EC inspection team visited Vietnam for the third time, after 2 years of suspending inspection plans due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, during this inspection, the EC said that Vietnam had not yet fully implemented the EC's recommendations. Specifically, although the legal framework has been relatively complete, the implementation of the fight against IUU fishing in some localities has been slow; the installation of voyage monitoring equipment has not been completed; many fishing vessels have lost connection with the monitoring system. In addition, Vietnamese fishing vessels still violate foreign waters.

Up to now, after 6 years of applying the "yellow card", the Vietnamese seafood industry in the EU has suffered many impacts such as losses in exports and finances as well as the exploitation activities of Vietnamese fishermen. In addition, not only causing economic consequences, the application of the "yellow card" has also partly affected the reputation of Vietnamese seafood in the international arena.

Sharing with Nguoi Dua Tin, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien expressed: “ The EC’s yellow card is a great concern of the Government, especially the Prime Minister. We have seriously implemented the issues that the EC pointed out in the third inspection and have had positive changes. This shows that the entire political system has taken action.”

High determination, great effort

Learning from the EC's recommendations, in preparation for the EC's fourth inspection, Vietnam issued a series of directive documents, demonstrating its close attention and determination in removing the EC's "yellow card". At the same time, it regularly held direct working sessions with localities.

According to information from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, as of August 29, 2023, the country had 86,820 fishing vessels with a length of 6m or more (a decrease of 9,789 vessels compared to 2019); of which 30,091 fishing vessels were 15m or longer (a decrease of 1,206 vessels compared to 2019).

Regarding the issuance of fishing licenses, the cable news updated that the total number of fishing vessels of 15m or more that have been granted valid licenses is 27,810/29,489 registered and updated to the VNFishbase database (reaching 94.3%).

Regarding monitoring, inspection and control of fishing vessel activities at sea, the results so far show that 97.86% (28,753/29,381) of fishing vessels with a length of 15 meters or more (VMS) have been installed with VMS. Although the percentage of fishing vessels with VMS installed is quite high , the number of vessels at risk of violations is still in those that have not installed the device.

In recent times, to combat IUU fishing and remove the EC's "yellow card", the Government, the Prime Minister, and the National Steering Committee on IUU have assigned specific tasks to each relevant ministry, sector, and locality. As a result, some positive results have been achieved. However, the fight against IUU fishing still has many limitations that need to be thoroughly addressed in the coming time, for example: there are still fishing vessels and fishermen violating illegal fishing in foreign waters; the punishment of violations in some places and at some times is not really serious...

Therefore, directing at the Conference to promote solutions to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, preparing to welcome and work with the 4th European Commission (EC) Inspection Delegation, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh especially emphasized: "Fighting IUU fishing is for the benefit of the Nation, the People, and the interests of our people, not for the inspection and examination of the EC."

In directing specific tasks, the Prime Minister requested ministries, branches, localities and relevant agencies to focus on leadership, direction and drastic actions to promptly complete the overcoming of existing problems and limitations, effectively implement tasks and solutions to prevent and end IUU fishing, and implement the directions of the Prime Minister and the Head of the National Steering Committee to welcome and work with the EC Inspection Delegation to achieve the best results.

Preparing for the event of the EC delegation's fourth inspection of IUU work in Vietnam, speaking with Nguoi Dua Tin , Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien said: "First of all, regarding the system of legal documents, we have the Fisheries Law issued in 2017, effective in 2019, 9 circulars, 2 decrees completed, as well as a series of directives, telegrams, conclusions and recently Decision 81 of the Prime Minister focusing all resources to remove the "yellow card". In general, our legal documents and executive directives are basically complete and consistent."

However, what the leaders of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development are worried about are the remaining 3 groups of problems. Among them, the management and supervision of the fleet still faces many challenges. With a large number of ships, this is a very important and difficult problem despite our best efforts. With the participation of many ministries and localities, we still have 43 cases with more than 260 violators, a decrease compared to previous years but still existing.

Next, Deputy Minister Tien emphasized that tracing the origin of ships must have a logbook when operating. In addition, handling administrative violations is not uniform in all provinces, some provinces have been highly determined to handle 100% such as Kien Giang.

At the online conference with the Western provinces on leadership and direction in combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang said that the upcoming EC inspection team is the last inspection team of the current European term, so without high determination and great efforts, it may take 2-3 years for Vietnam to have the opportunity to remove the IUU "yellow card".

Therefore, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang emphasized that the biggest goal from now until the EC inspection team arrives in Vietnam is to not let any fishing boat be arrested by foreign countries.

According to the working schedule, from October 11 to 15, the EC inspection team will work with the Department of Animal Health, the Department of Quality, Processing and Market Development, a number of exporting enterprises, and conduct field inspections at designated fishing ports under the Agreement on Port State Measures (PSMA) and locally.

On October 16-17, the delegation will work technically with the Department of Fisheries Control, Department of Fisheries, Department of Animal Health, Department of Quality, Processing and Market Development and related units.

On October 18, the delegation will have a high-level dialogue with leaders of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

On the evening of October 18, the Government leader - Head of the National Steering Committee for IUU Prevention will receive the delegation .

Source: https://www.nguoiduatin.vn/6-nam-no-luc-go-the-vang-iuu-quyet-tam-ve-dich-a630496.html