Illustrative image (Source: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – A captain who fishesillegally will see his boat driving licence revoked and his vessel banned fromfishing, said Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Ha CongTuan.
Tuan mentioned the punishment at a ministrypress conference in Hanoi on April 3, stating that the body will crack down onthe problem.
The official said inter-sector workinggroups have been established to join local monitoring of illegal fishing,recording a reduced number of violations.
Concerning Vietnam’s efforts to fight illegal,unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, he said a high-ranking delegationfrom his ministry, led by Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong, visited the EU to discusshow the country has worked to address the issue to clear the EuropeanCommission (EC)’s “yellow card”.
Vietnam received a “yellow card” from the ECbecause of its failure to meet standards over IUU fishing on October 23, 2017and was given six months to rectify the situation.
Tuan noted that the EU acknowledgedVietnam’s efforts but pointed to some shortcomings. An EC delegation will visitVietnam this April to examine the work so far, he added.
Regarding the US’s imposition ofanti-dumping duties on tra fish, Deputy Director of Directorate of Fisheries NguyenQuang Hung said this was an unreasonable action.
He said his directorate and the VietnamAssociation of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) are working withbusinesses and other relevant sectors to appeal against the judgment at theCourt of International Trade.
In the 13th administrative review (POR13),the US imposed an anti-dumping tax on Vietnamese tra fish five to six timeshigher than the previous tax, which was 0.69 USD per kilo.
According to VASEP, Vietnamese businessesare not dumping. The selling price of Vietnamese tra fish is cheaper thanAmerican fish because inputs such as labour and production conditions arecheaper than in the US.
“The US’s decision is unilateral and unfair,not matching the rules of the World Trade Organisation. We do not exclude thepossibility that we will seriously consider bringing this case to internationalarbitration," said Tuan.
He said Vietnam will increase bilateral andmultilateral meetings to negotiate trade, showing its efforts in respect toprinciples of international trade and mutual benefits of sides involved.-VNA
VNA
