Information from the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) said that on September 10, 2025, VASEP issued Official Letter No. 156/CV-VASEP to the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Advisory Council for Administrative Procedure Reform and the Department of Fisheries and Fisheries Control (NOAA) under the US Department of Commerce (DOC) to notify the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment of Vietnam on the refusal to recognize the equivalent of 12 Vietnamese seafood exploitation occupations under the US Law on marine Protection Protection (MMPA).
Accordingly, seafood exploited by these fisheries will be stopped being imported into the United States from January 1, 2026. This is a measure equivalent to an import ban, greatly affecting the export of many key Vietnamese seafood species to the United States such as tuna, swordfish, mackerel, mackerel, herring, catfish, squid, captive fish, etc.
According to VASEP, in recent times, the Vietnamese seafood industry, together with the Government and local authorities, has made strong and continuous efforts to modernize, enhance responsibility and strengthen fisheries management.
This includes the National Assembly's promulgation of the 2017 Law on Fisheries, increasing the allocation of resources for local management, as well as maintaining efforts to comply with IUU, SIMP and FIP programs for catfish and tuna, and implementing the "Pork Safety" certification for the tuna export supply chain, along with many other legal frameworks and marine animal protection programs...
VASEP recommends that, to protect the interests of domestic seafood exploitation and farming enterprises before NOAA's decision, it is necessary to have urgent and long-term coordination measures from the Government and relevant ministries, support and accompany the exploited seafood industry to overcome, remove and open the US market for exploited seafood products, to minimize the impact or avoid the risk of export suspension from January 1, 2026.
On September 15, 2025, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien sent a letter to US Secretary of Commerce (DOC) Howard Lutnick, requesting DOC and NOAA to reconsider this decision to avoid serious disruptions to bilateral trade and protect the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese fishermen and workers.
In a letter to the US Secretary of Commerce, Minister Nguyen Hong Dien also requested Minister Howard Lutnick to pay attention and consider objectively to ensure reasonable results for Vietnamese shrimp exporting enterprises, which are trustworthy partners and fair trading in the US market in the ongoing 19th administrative review of anti- dumping tax on imported shrimp from Vietnam.
In the content of the letter, Minister Nguyen Hong Dien also emphasized that the above decisions are not only meaningful to Vietnamese manufacturing and exporting enterprises, farmers and fishermen but also benefit both US importers, workers and consumers.
The United States and Vietnam are maintaining a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, built on the basis of trust and mutual benefit. Vietnam considers the United States an important trade partner and also creates the most favorable conditions for US businesses and investors. Vietnam is committed to continuing to cooperate closely with the United States to resolve outstanding issues in a constructive and forward-through manner.
