10/01/2019 (Agence Europe) – European industry and civil society are particularly polarised over two trade and investment agreements between the EU and Vietnam, adopted last October by the Commission (see EUROPE 12119). In a letter sent to the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, on 9 December, ten professional and trade associations called on Member States to "dedicate the resources necessary to complete this review expeditiously so that the agreement can be approved in early 2019", i.e. before the European elections in May 2019. The civil society response was swift, and the next day a Human Rights Watch statement called for postponing ratification of the agreement "until the Vietnamese government takes concrete steps to improve its increasingly abusive human rights record". (HD)