Use Trade Pact to Demand Rights Improvements
- Claudio Francavilla
- HRW
Cecilia Malmström, the European Union’s trade commissioner, will hold talks on Monday with Trần Tuấn Anh, Vietnam’s trade and industry minister, about concluding a long negotiated Free Trade Agreement.
Based on the EU Commission’s figures, the pact could boost Vietnam’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 15 percent.
The EU says it has designed its trade policy as a tool to promote human rights in line with its founding treaty and pledges by EU foreign ministers.
The agreed text does include some vague provisions that could lead to…