Vietnam continues to lead in incidents of illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing incidents in the Asia-Pacific region, despite the enactment of a more stringent Fisheries Law in 2018 as a result of the Yellow Card issued by the European Union against Vietnamese seafood exports.
The Yellow Card was issued in October 2017 by the European Commission because of the rampant violation of exclusive economic zones of neighboring Asian and Western Pacific countries by Vietnamese fishing boats which continue to poach in these territorial waters. This led the EC to impose the Yellow Card despite the free trade agreement which was in place between Vietnam and EU member countries.
Since 2017, the EC has conducted two reviews and inspections of Vietnam’s fisheries policies and records of enforcement with an eye to lifting its Yellow Card status but in both instances, the review panel found that while the policies were in place in terms of amendments to the Fisheries Law, the enforcement leading to the deterrence of IUU activities was still lacking.
The review panel noted the limited progress in the implementation of the recommendations made by the EC with respect to the revision of the legal framework to ensure compliance with international and regional codes for the conservation and management of fisheries resources, ensuring the effective implementation and enforcement of the revised laws, increasing the traceability of seafood products in relation to IUU violations and preventing the sale of the same products from IUU fishing.
Observers have pointed out that the reasons why the Vietnamese have failed in curbing IUU incidents is primarily because of the government's stand that encroaching in the EEZs of other countries is one way Vietnam can assert its maritime rights in the disputed waters.
Next is fishery sources in Vietnamese waters are nearing depletion and fishermen who have no means to transition to another trade or find other employment, are left with no choice but to engage in IUU fishing for their survival.
The Vietnamese government is also lax in its enforcement because of its inability to strictly implement the revised laws by deploying technology to monitor fishing vessels and fishermen and the registration of fishing vessels which are capable of going beyond Vietnamese waters.
Data released by the South China Sea Probing Initiative for October 2022 show a total of 7,653 Vietnamese fishing vessels with 65,971 tracking points in the whole South China Sea, which confirms that IUU activities continue at a level of impunity.
The Yellow Card comes at a huge cost to the Vietnamese seafood industry. Data from the Vietnamese customs agency shows that the EU accounts for 12 percent of Vietnam's seafood exports and they are the fourth largest supplier, after the US, Japan, China and Hong Kong.
The Vietnamese Association of Seafood Exporters (VASEP), has been actively pushing for the lifting of the Yellow Card because the EU is one of the main markets for its members. This comes at a time when EC inspectors are scheduled to arrive in Vietnam to conduct a review of the government program against IUU, with the hope that the Yellow Card will finally be lifted after five years and two earlier reviews, both of which failed to result in the lifting of the import restrictions.
Since the advent of the Yellow Card, exports of sea-caught seafood such as tuna, squid, octopus, scallops, cod and sentinel crab to the EU has gone down to only 8 percent out of the total export value of $3.4 billion to all markets. Japan was the largest buyer of sea-caught seafood followed by the US, China and South Korea.
The volume of sea-caught seafood exports to the EU has gone down since 2017 due to the The stringent administrative measures in place for imports as a result of the Yellow Card. Buyers prefer to purchase products from other countries such as Thailand which was also penalized with a Yellow Card before but has since managed to pass the EU’s rigorous standards.
Vietnam is now at a crossroads as a third failed review might result in a Red Card, or a total ban on Vietnam fishery products to the EU. The Vietnamese government needs to modify their approach to containing IUU activities to avoid being penalized with a Red Card.
Independent conservation organizations have noted that Vietnam needs to step up its efforts by adopting a more stringent and transparent approach to solving the persistent problem. This includes supporting the establishment of an inter-country monitoring system in the Asia-Pacific region against IUU fishing.
There is also the need to provide Vietnamese fishermen with livelihood options in light of the diminishing fisheries stocks in Vietnamese waters. Policy-makers have to consider how to diversify their income sources. Deep-sea farming and aquaculture should be encouraged. Advanced processing industries can be established to upgrade the export structure with value-added fishery and seafood products aimed at the EU market.
Technology has made monitoring easier and Vietnam should invest in the same in order to ensure that fishermen would be deterred with the knowledge that they will get caught and heavily penalized for violating IUU restrictions. Although Vietnam has made great efforts in installing fishing vessel monitoring systems based on the EC’s recommendations, only about 30 percent of all Vietnamese fishing boats have been equipped with such equipment.
IUU monitoring and suppression efforts require the Vietnamese government to apply high-tech facilities and infrastructure, such as an IT-driven risk management system, big-data analytics and wireless sensor networks to begin with. The Vietnamese government should allocate more funds and resources for research and development. The joint-development of a monitoring system among ASEAN member countries is both cost-efficient and makes it easier to achieve the goals.
The stakes are high for Vietnam’s export-driven economy. Seafood exports are expected to hit the $10 billion mark for 2022 and this is a primary contributor to its economic growth. The Red Card penalty is a probability that Vietnam can avoid by way of transparency and increased cooperation with neighboring countries which have been the unintended victims of Vietnamese fishermen operating in their territorial waters.
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