Vietnam’s prime minister orders an end to illegal fishing this year

Vietnam Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has asked his government’s ministries and agencies to put an end to illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing by the end of 2021, with the goal of obtaining removal of the European Commission’s yellow card.

Chinh made the statement in early September while chairing a virtual conference with officials from coastal provinces and cities, as well as representatives seafood sector.

Vietnam was first issued a yellow card in October 2017 by the E.C., which said the Southeast Asian nation had not done enough to tackle IUU fishing.

Since its imposition, the E.U. has been conducting a review of Vietnam’s fisheries-related policies to determine which route it will take out of three options available to it: maintaining the country’s yellow card status, issuing a red card banning all seafood imports from Vietnam, or rescinding the yellow card and resuming normal trading relations.

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Toan Dao