TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The European Union announced Thursday (June 27) that it was lifting the yellow card imposed on Taiwan over the past three and a half years over illegal fishing, acknowledging the positive reforms undertaken by the island nation.

Taiwan’s long-distance fishing fleet, the second largest in the world, received the yellow card as a warning against illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU) in October 2015, an EU statement said.

The European body’s Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Karmenu Vella, was quoted as praising Taiwan’s reforms.

“I welcome the considerable efforts undertaken by Taiwan to reform its fisheries legal framework, implement new control tools, and improve the traceability of marine fisheries products,” Vella said.

As a result of three years of “intense cooperation and dialogue,” Taiwan now have at their disposal a wide range of efficient tools to combat IUU, according to the statement.

Both sides will form a joint working group while continuing to address labor conditions in the fishing sector as part of human rights consultations, the EU said.