Europe 'pulls yellow card' on Vietnamese seafood?

On October 23, the European Union (EU) issued a 'yellow card' to Vietnam in the field of seafood exploitation for violating IUU principles. So what is IUU?

Combating illegal fishing

IUU (illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing) is a program to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing activities. In 2002, the EU issued IUU on the basis of implementing the "International Plan of Action" of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2001, to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU fishing activities.

Vietnamese businesses believe that implementing IUU commitments is for sustainable development.

The purpose of IUU is to prevent, deter and eliminate all forms of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. According to the IUU regulation, EU member states must impose penalties of at least 5 times the value of the infringing product, 8 times the value for repeat offenders within 5 years. In addition, the law also provides other sanctions such as temporary confiscation of fishing vessels in violation...

Being penalized with a red card, the loss of seafood exporting countries to the EU is not small because it creates fear for EU retailers about seafood imported from that country and can be replaced by seafood from other countries. In particular, any country that is penalized with a red card, seafood products exploited from that country will be banned from entering the EU.

According to statistics from the Vietnam WTO Center, up to now, 24 countries and territories have been sanctioned by the EU. Of these, 13 countries have been sanctioned but have had their sanction revoked thanks to improved management systems. There are 8 countries and territories with yellow cards, including: Kiribati, Liberia, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Sierra Leone, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago and Tuvalu. In particular, 3 countries with red cards are Cambodia, Conmoros and Saint Vincent & Grenadines.

Vietnamese businesses commit to comply with IUU

Facing the risk of being “yellow carded”, on September 25, in Ho Chi Minh City, the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development held a conference on seafood businesses pledging to “Fight IUU fishing”.

At the conference, the IUU Steering Committee was established with 73 participating businesses and committed to, together with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the fishing community, strictly implementing IUU regulations and the Government's National Action Program against IUU fishing. Accordingly, businesses committed to only purchasing seafood raw materials from legal fishing vessels with clear origin, and only importing seafood with legal origin.

Firmly committed to not purchasing seafood from fishing vessels that fish illegally, operate without a license, do not keep logs and do not report according to regulations, or use prohibited fishing gear. Enterprises also committed to saying no to rare seafood species and products caught with sizes smaller than prescribed.

According to Thanh Nien