(seafood.vasep.com.vn) In order to contribute to raising awareness of seafood processing enterprises, fishing vessel owners and the fishing community about the importance and principles of not using child labor, prevention of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU), towards building sustainable fisheries, VASEP has cooperated with the Directorate of Fisheries (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) and International Labor Organization in Vietnam (ILO Vietnam) carrying out many propaganda activities.

Removing the European Commission (EC)’s illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing “yellow card” is not easy and cannot be done overnight, but the Vietnamese business community and associations are still determined to do, not only to meet EU requirements, but also for the sake of sustainable fishery development.

Vice Chairman of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam Rubén Saornil Mínguez recently appreciated efforts by the Vietnamese Government, businesses and fishermen in fighting illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing following the European Commission (EC)’s recommendations.

Vietnam has been taking various measures across its provinces in order to fight IUU fishing so that it can have the yellow card that it still holds from the EU removed.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyễn Xuân Cường has urged 28 coastal provinces to promote further actions against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Relations between the EU and some ASEAN member states have been tense in recent years because of the seafood trade, stemming from the European Commission’s (EC) sanctions related to the illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. As Chair of ASEAN 2020, Vietnam hopes to promote cooperation among ASEAN member states and address this issue to actively contribute towards better ASEAN-EU trade relations.

On March 08, 2019, the Government promulgates the Decree No. 26/2019/ND-CP on providing guidelines for implementation of the Law on Fisheries.

On December 25, 2018, the Vietnam Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development promulgated the Circular No. 36/2018/TT-BNNPTNT on amendments to the Circular No. 26/2016/TT-BNNPTNT dated June 30, 2016 by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development on quarantine of aquatic animals and products thereof.

After 2 years of EU’s warning of yellow card for Vietnam's caught marine products, Vietnam's marine product export to EU market has been remarkably affected, down 6.5% to nearly 390 million USD in 2018 and continued to level off in the first 8 months of 2019 with 251 million USD. From the second position in Vietnam's seafood import markets, after the yellow card, the EU has dropped to fifth and the proportion of the market has decreased from 18% to 13%.

(seafood.vasep.com.vn) According to Mathew Camilleri, Senior Fishery Officer at the Fisheries and Aquaculture Department of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), “IUU fishing, within the context of the IPOA-IUU, includes: