The European Union is to launch another inspection of Vietnam's IUU fishing industry

The European Commission is planning another inspection of Vietnam's fishing industry to check the country's progress in combating illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, according to SeafoodSource.

In October 2017, the EU first issued a yellow card to Vietnam because the European Commission felt that Vietnam was not doing enough to combat IUU fishing.

Since the implementation of the policy, the EU has been conducting a review of Vietnam's fishing-related policies to decide which of three judgments to choose from: maintaining Vietnam's yellow card status, imposing a total ban on imports of "red card" seafood from Vietnam, or removing the yellow card and restoring normal trade relations.

According to a government statement, Vietnam has been doing its best to implement the EU recommendations, such as implementing Marine protection agreements, issuing fishing licences and implementing a plan to gradually reduce its overall fishing.

Le Van Thanh, Vietnam's deputy prime minister, called on EU member states to continue providing technical assistance to Vietnam and pledged to cancel its yellow card.