In a bid to address Vietnam’s high import rejection rate in the international trade of fish and fishery products, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) organised a troubleshooting workshop.
The workshop, entitled Meeting Standards – Winning Markets: How to address the Compliance Challenges of Seafood Value Chains, was presented in cooperation with Vietnam’s National Agro-Forestry Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (NAFIQAD) and the Institute of Developing Economies of the Japanese External Trade Organization (DE-JETRO).
The aim of the workshop was to set priorities to built national capacities to meet Sanitary and Photo Sanitary (SPS) market requirements. It also looked at the challenges faced by the agro-food sectors of developing countries, in particular the seafood value chain in Vietnam.
During the event, Spencer Henson, professorial fellow at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), explained the analysis of two recent studies, which suggest that import rejection data can be used to measure compliance performance, improve capacity building, increase trade and enhance social outcomes.
The two studies, 2012 Trade Standards Compliance Report and the regional Asian Trade Standards Compliance Report, are due to be published soon.
