Prime Minister expects removal of EC’s “yellow card” warning on seafood

In the afternoon of October 29, Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc welcomed the delegation from the European Parliament’s Committee on Fisheries led by MEP and Committee Spokesman Gabriel Mato.

PM Phúc said that Viet Nam always considers the cooperation between the Vietnamese National Assembly and the European Parliament an important pillar in the comprehensive cooperation between Viet Nam and the European Union.

Appraising the European Commission’s (EC) asking the European Council to consider signing the Viet Nam-EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), the Prime Minister stressed the European Parliament’s significant role in EU decision-making. Therefore, Viet Nam wished to receive the support of the European Parliament, MEP. Gabriel Mato and other parliamentarians in this delegation to accelerate the signing and ratification of the Agreement. The PM emphasized Viet Nam’s active deployment of the national action plan on illegal fishing prevention and control.

Mato said he and other parliamentarians of the delegation to Viet Nam were willing to support the signing and adoption of the EVFTA. The delegation said they would like to explore and share with Viet Nam their experience in illegal fishing prevention and control. He said that the EU was ready to cooperate with all countries to tackle this issue. On behalf of the delegation, he highly appreciated Viet Nam's positive results in preventing illegal fishing in recent times, including the issuance and implementation of many important regulations. He hoped that the activities of the delegation to Viet Nam would yield good results, which would lay as a foundation to propose the European Commission to remove the “yellow card” from Viet Nam.

Commenting on the opinion of MEP Gabriel Mato and other parliamentarians of the delegation, Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc emphasized that Viet Nam considered the EC’s yellow card as an opportunity to boost the fisheries sector’s sustainable and responsible development. Viet Nam is now making its best efforts to implement measures to overcome the yellow card warning in the most effective and best suited to the practical situation. Accordingly, Viet Nam has promulgated the Law on Fisheries, developed guiding documents, implemented a national action program against illegal fishing, promoted communication to localities and fishermen to promote the adoption of legal regulations.

To date, Viet Nam has made a number of achievements in four groups of issues: (1) Revision of the legal framework, especially the Law on Fisheries dated 21/11/2017; (2) Strengthening the system of monitoring, supervising and controlling fishing vessel operation; (3) Strengthening legislation enforcement, including the organization of many conferences to promote communication and information to fishermen and localities; and (4) Amending and improving the certification and confirmation of the origin of fishing products. As a result, the Prime Minister expected Gabriel Mato and his team’s support to propose to the European Commission to actively consider Viet Nam's efforts and remove the yellow card for Viet Nam's seafood exports to the EU soon./.