EC postpones IUU inspection in Vietnam until October
VOV.VN - An inspection team from the European Commission (EC) is scheduled to visit Vietnam this October instead of May as planned to inspect the country’s efforts to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).
This will be the fourth round of the EC’s inspection to examine the country’s anti-IUU fishing efforts.
The EC earlier proposed online meetings to get underway in May, June, and October this year before sending the inspection team to Vietnam later this year.
The MARD will dispatch a delegation at the end of May to work directly with the EC in a bid to update the implementation of the IUU fight in Vietnam.
Following the EC inspection in October last year, Vietnam has exerted great efforts in a bid to deploy four groups of the EC’s recommendations which combat IUU fishing and remove the "yellow card" warning including the legal framework, close supervision of fishing vessels’ activities, as well as the certification of output and traceability of aquatic products from fishing and law enforcement.
The MARD has already sent inspection teams in order to examine the situation and instruct localities to implement measures against the IUU fishing under the EC's recommendations in Thanh Hoa, Tra Vinh, Soc Trang, Nam Dinh, Thai Binh, Phu Yen, and Binh Dinh provinces among other localities.
Until April 30, 28,797 out of 29,489 fishing vessels have installed vessel monitoring equipment (VMS).
In October, 2017, the EC issued a "yellow card" warning against Vietnamese seafood exports to Europe, noting these products did not fully comply with regulations on combating the IUU fishing.
Since then, Vietnam has made great strides in implementing measures to follow the EU’s recommendations.
