VASEP and Vietnam marine product enterprises’ activities to combat IUU fishing

4 ACTIVITY GROUPS TO COMBAT IUU FISHING

1. Activities related to the commitment of enterprises

Sep 2017

- Set up the Program “Marine product enterprises’ commitment to combating IUU fishing”, belongs to VASEP Marine Product Committee and directed by VASEP's IUU Steering Committee; Has operation Regulations and the Action Plan of the Program

Nov 2017

- Held the second meeting of enterprises in the Program “Marine product enterprises’ commitment to combating IUU fishing” with participation of representatives from EU delegation to Vietnam to update, exchange information after receiving the yellow card as well as listen to difficulties of the enterprises.

Feb 2018

- Marine product enterprises in the Program have simultaneously hung the board of commitments to combating IUU fishing (in bilingual English-Vietnamese) at the companies’ gates or doors of processing plants

Since Sep 2017

- Enterprises have been actively participating in activities of the Program to combat IUU fishing and to overcome IUU yellow card; strictly implement the commitment to combating IUU fishing; complying with the EU, the US and Vietnam regulations to combat IUU fishing

Since Sep 2017

Organized conferences, training courses for enterprises to:

- Summarize, analyze the impact of the current situation of enterprises, then report to the MARD leaders

- Disseminate and guide newly issued regulations and legal documents.

Apr 2019

- Approved action plan of 2019 to combating IUU fishing

2. Contribute to improve and amend the legal framework and common activities

Since Oct 2017

- Coordinated and worked with D-Fish, Department of Legal Affairs, NAFIQAD, Department of Animal Health on contents related to fishing and exporting marine products

- Attended relevant meetings of leaders of MARD, D-Fish on IUU and commenting the drafted Circular amending and supplementing Circulars No 50/2015/TT-BNNPTNT; No 25/2013/TT- BNNPTNT and amending Circular No. 26/2016/TT-BNNPTNT related to catch certificates (CC) and catch statements (SC) for marine caught products.

- Submitted the Official Letters to MARD, D-Fish, Department of Animal Health and NAFIQAD commenting the drafted Circular replacing Circular No. 26/2016 and H/C regulations on imports for processing and re-exporting to the EU, circular No. 02/2018/TT-BNNPTNT on catch certification and catch statement for catching marine products, circular No 36/2018/TT-BNNPTNT on quarantine of aquatic animals and products; Circular to issue the list of fishing ports assigned to implement and issue CC and SC, circular to issue the list of commercial ports importing seafood in Vietnam.

Oct 2017- Feb 2018

- Sent the Official Letter to the Prime Minister, the National Assembly Chairman, Minister of MARD to report and recommend the necessary contents of "actions”.

- Sent the Official Letter to Minister of MARD to report and propose Action Plan to overcome EU yellow card

- Sent to the D-Fish the Official Letters commenting the National Action Plan by 2025 to prevent deter and eliminate IUU fishing; proposing activities to overcome IUU yellow cards in February and March 2018.

Apr - May 2018

- Sent an official Letter to the MARD giving recommendations on difficulties related to implementing Circular 02/2018/TT-BNNPTNT and an official Letter to the D-Fish on draft document guiding implementation of Circular No 02/2018/TT-BNNPTNT.

Apr – Aug 2018

- Sent an official Letter to the Ministry of Finance and MARD, cooperated with Ministry of Finance and MARD to survey at Hon Ro Fishing Port in Nha Trang to unify & make clear the process and actual cost for a catch statement.

- Sent 2 official Letters to Department of Tax policy, Ministry of Finance, commenting on draft circular amending Circular 230/2016/TT-BTC on SC and CC fees.

July 2018

- Sent the official Letter to D-Fish to report some difficulties related to implementing SC and CC for caught marine products.

Sep 2018

- Sent Document No. 135/2018/CV-VASEP to the D-Fish commenting on the drafted circular regulating activities to prevent illegal fishing.

Jan 2019

- Sent comments on drafted Decree guiding the implementation of the 2017 Fisheries Law

3. Collaboration with relevant parties and international relations

Oct 2017

- Collaborated with NOAA – U.S and D- Fish to hold a Seminar on US's SIMP to exchange issues related to SIMP and necessary procedures to meet IUU regulations; VASEP and the NOAA experts had a meeting with a number of marine product enterprises exporting to the United States.

Oct 2017

- IUU Steering Committee met and signed a cooperation agreement with Vietnam Coast Guard on implementation of activities to combat IUU fishing.

Oct - Nov 2017

- Met leaders of D-Fish and the units under D-Fish to discuss the action plan of the Government and MARD in 6 months.

- Participated in the meeting between Minister of MARD, Prime-Minister of MARD and the Ministry's units  to discuss cooperation activities on IUU, overcome yellow card on the base of  10 contents proposed by VASEP

Nov 2017

- VASEP IUU Task Force visited Da Nang, Khanh Hoa and Binh Thuan provinces - worked with Fisheries Sub-Departments and Fishing Port Management Boards to survey fisheries management activities in localities, the process of granting catch documents and certificates and shortcomings in fisheries management, collected opinions and proposals from local units to report to MARD.

Nov 2017

- Held the conference "Imports of seafood materials for production and exports – Current status and Solutions" to summarize and analyze the impacts of current state and collect comments from enterprises, representatives from related state agencies to provide full and timely comments for the amendment draft of Circular 26/2016 of MARD related to seafood imports.

Mar 2018

- Representative of VASEP joined the Technical Delegation of Directorate for Fisheries in discussion with the EC on IUU issue, and joined the delegation of the Minister of MARD to the EC.

April 2018

- Participated Conference on solutions to promote marine product export of MARD in Khanh Hoa province, proposing some measure to solve obstacles in implementing SC  and CC for caught marine  products under IUU regulations

May 2018

- Cooperated closely with D-Fish and MARD for the preparation and timely updated information for marine product enterprises before the EC inspection

Oct 2018

- Attended the meeting of the delegation of  European Parliament's Committee on Fisheries at Binh Dinh Seafood Joint Stock Company

4. Communication activities

January 2018

- VASEP published “White Book on combating IUU fishing in Vietnam” to strengthen communication on Vietnam’s efforts and actions to combat IUU fishing

April 2018

- At Seafood Exhibition in Belgium, VASEP collaborated with D-Fish and Vietnam Ambassador in Belgium to organize a Press Conference to show Vietnam commitment and efforts to combat IUU.

Since Oct 2017

- Set up a colum “Combat IUU fishing” on VASEP’s portal: vasep.com.vn and VASEP’s  weekly newsletter “Seafood Trade” to update on EU and the US regulations on IUU, Vietnam new fisheries law and legal documents related to IUU fishing combating, on Vietnam seafood companies joining and implementing IUU combating programs.

Apr 2018

- Cooperated with D-Fish to organize the training workshop "Dissemination and exchange of problems and obstacles in Circular No 02/2018/TT-BNNPTNT and issuance of catch statements and catch certificates for marine product exporters" in Ho Chi Minh City.

Oct 2018

- Worked with and provided information to the reporters of prestigious newspapers in Europe visiting Vietnam to conduct surveys and propaganda on Vietnam efforts and action to combat IUU fishing

May 2019

- Issued the Map: “Location of the sustainable supply chain of Vietnam marine products and tuna in the commitment to combat IUU fishing”

ACTION PLANS IN 2019 (Continue to implement activities of the Program in 04 main groups)

1

Activities related to the commitment of enterprises

- Organize a Conference to evaluate 2 years implementing Program of marine product enterprises commit to combating IUU fishing (in Sep 2019)

- Continuously update and disseminate and guide newly issued regulations and legal documents.

- Invite and provided information to international reporters to write and propagate on Vietnam efforts and action to combat IUU fishing

- Organizing conferences, training courses in big fishing provinces (in Jun, Jul, Aug 2019)

2

Contribute to improve and amend the legal framework and common activities

- Continuously comment on related legal documents issued by MARD, D-Fish…

- VASEP representatives continue to participate in the Technical Working Group on IUU yellow card

- Continuously coordinate, attend, and report & propose at meetings organized by MARD, D-Fish on IUU yellow card

3

Collaboration with relevant parties and international relations

- Regularly communicate with the EU Delegation in Vietnam to update information & affirm the commitment of the business community

- Organize an international workshop on IUU issues and Vietnam's efforts to combat IUU (in Aug 2019)

- Continuously work closely with D-Fish in implementing Fisheries Law and Decree 26/2019/ND-CP on guiding Fisheries Law

4

Communication activities

- Issue the Map : “Location of the sustainable supply chain of Vietnam marine products and tuna in the commitment to combat IUU fishing” (In May-Jun 2019)

- Release VASEP 2020 Calendar on the topic "Efforts to improve fisheries management & remove IUU yellow card".(Nov – Dec 2019)

- Collaborate with D-Fish, VTV and other media agencies to make a video clip and posters to propagate obligative activities to combat IUU fishing among fishermen. (Jun – Jul 2019)