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The United States said Monday it would step up cooperation with Vietnam and Taiwan, among others, to combat illegal fishing, a problem environmentalists and Western nations are increasingly blaming on China.
As a major UN conference to restore the planet’s ailing oceans opened in Portugal, US President Joe Biden signed a memorandum aimed at increasing coordination and enforcement within the US government against illegal fishing and the use of forced labor .
The White House said the United States is also planning new engagements with Ecuador, Panama, Senegal, Taiwan and Vietnam to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, known in environmental jargon as “IUU.”
One administration official said without further detail that the collaboration would include “capacity building” as part of a strategic plan.
The United States identified the five “not because they are the primary perpetrators of IUU fishing, but because they have expressed a willingness to work with the United States to combat IUU fishing in their countries,” she said reporters under the usual condition of anonymity.
US officials generally avoid referring to Taiwan as a country, as the United States only recognizes Beijing, which considers pro-Western self-governing democracy to be part of its territory.
Vietnam also has intense maritime disputes with Beijing, which claims large parts of the South China Sea and is trying to enforce its own fishing rules.
Another official said that although the new US effort does not target any country, China “is a leading contributor to IUU fishing worldwide and has impeded progress in developing policies to combat IUU fishing and overfishing in international organizations.” “.
A recent report by the Environmental Justice Foundation said China has by far the largest fleet in the world capable of fishing in distant waters and there have been frequent complaints of abuse.
The British advocacy group said crew members from Indonesia and Ghana reported in interviews of Chinese captains imposing excessive hours without pay, using threats or actual violence, and offering substandard food that led to diarrhea and other illnesses.
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