Lifting IUU Yellow Card: 9 Urgent Tasks Before “G-Hour”
Lifting the IUU ‘Yellow Card’: 9 Key Tasks Before ‘G-Hour’
Drastic action from directives to substantial implementation, tightening management discipline on fishing vessels, traceability, and responsibilities of localities and enterprises to remove the IUU ‘yellow card’.
Seafood Exports to EU Under Pressure In 2025, the Department of Fisheries and Fisheries Surveillance (Ministry of Agriculture and Environment) advised and prepared content for 15 periodic meetings of the National Steering Committee on IUU, chaired by the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha.
Export Performance: In the first 10 months of 2025, Vietnam’s seafood export turnover to the EU reached 1.01 billion USD, an increase of 11.2% over the same period in 2024, accounting for 10.9% of the country’s total seafood export turnover.
Based on this, the Prime Minister issued a Directive on preventing and strictly handling fishing vessels and fishermen violating illegal fishing in foreign waters, along with a Peak, Urgent Action Plan to implement EC recommendations, preparing for the 5th EC Inspection Team. These documents demonstrate high political determination to end prolonged IUU violations, considering this an important political task directly related to national prestige and long-term livelihoods of the fisheries sector.
Current Status and Bottlenecks The 2021-2025 period saw the establishment of key platforms:
- Consolidating the National Steering Committee on IUU.
- Working directly with the 3rd, 4th, and 5th EC Inspection Teams.
- Deploying the electronic traceability system (eCDT).
- Synchronizing the fishing vessel and crew database (VNFishbase) with the National Population Database.
- Strictly implementing the PSMA Agreement.
However, reality shows that IUU remains the biggest bottleneck. Some localities are confused in fleet management; data reporting remains inconsistent; and traceability in some stages is inadequate. Mr. Le Thanh Hoa, Deputy Director of the Department of Quality, Processing and Market Development, affirmed that fleet management and traceability need to be tighter and more transparent to create a sustainable foundation for lifting the “yellow card”.
Substantive Action for Sustainable Removal The battle to remove the IUU “yellow card” is entering a pivotal stage, requiring higher substance and verifiability before the 5th EC Inspection Team, expected to visit Vietnam in April 2026.
According to Notice No. 16/TB-VPCP, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha emphasized rectifying reporting work, considering it a key “knot”. Reports must be clear on data by group, updated on progress, comparing results over time, and clarifying causes of existence.
To prepare best for the inspection, the Deputy PM required focusing on 9 key urgent tasks:
- System Readiness Check: The Ministry of Science and Technology presides, coordinating with VNPT and Viettel to review data interconnection and operation capabilities, ensuring the principle: “Open and access – Click and run – Process must be executable”; report to the Prime Minister before January 15, 2026.
- Digitalization & Standardization: Promote digitalization of vessel data; organize training for ship owners/captains to fully implement electronic fishing logs and traceability according to unified, easy-to-understand instructions.
- “Three-No” Vessels: Review and strictly handle “three-no” vessels (no registration, no inspection, no license); clarify the number of vessels revoked/deregistered; verify actual status; strictly handle cases where deregistered vessels still operate.
- Legal Liability: Perfect legal regulations on individual legal responsibility in managing revoked/deregistered vessels; strictly handle behaviors of lax management or dishonest reporting.
- VMS Regulations: Perfect regulations on installing Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMS) to prevent fraud while remaining flexible for fishermen, avoiding mechanical application in objective situations.
- Port Management: Innovate statistics of vessels entering/leaving ports, managing by ID nationwide; synchronize data between fishing ports and border guards; reduce pre-check, increase post-check on electronic records.
- Data Standardization: Completely standardize data on vessels and violators; clearly classify handled cases vs. force majeure cases; clarify local responsibility if violators are not managed.
- Handling Violations: Definitively handle cases of fishing vessels violating foreign waters eligible for handling, especially in key localities like An Giang, Ca Mau; complete before January 12, 2026.
- Exporter Responsibility: Tighten the responsibility of seafood exporters to the EU. The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment coordinates with VASEP to require 100% of enterprises to self-review and self-remedy; strict handling, including criminal liability, if fraud is detected.
Modernizing Fisheries Also at the Conference, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Phung Duc Tien emphasized that lifting the IUU ‘yellow card’ is an urgent political task with no retreat. The Fisheries Surveillance force must truly be a “precious sword” at sea, strengthening patrols and strict handling with no forbidden zones.
Notably, to address fishermen’s concerns about recording electronic logs offshore, the eCDT and VNFishbase systems are designed to operate in parallel online and offline modes, allowing data storage when signal is lost and automatic synchronization when signal returns.
Implementing these 9 tasks is not only to remove the “yellow card” but also a fundamental step to restructure the fisheries sector towards modernity, responsibility, and sustainability.
Timeline: The 5th Inspection Team of the European Commission (EC) is expected to visit Vietnam in April 2026.
