After nearly seven years of negotiations, the European Union and Vietnam appear closer than ever to cinching a major free trade deal, known as the Europe-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA). The long-sought deal promises to boost Vietnam’s economic growth by as much as 8% by 2025, driven by an expected sure of technology hardware and textile exports to lucrative European markets. European investors, meanwhile, are expected to be lured into Vietnam’s liberalizing and growing banking and insurance sectors. The dailyReport Must-reads from across Asia - directly to your inbox Hopes for a final deal were raised in October after the European Commission accepted the EVFTA’s terms, including the elimination on 99% of all customs now imposed on bilateral trade. But Europe’s perennial concerns about Vietnam’s poor rights record, including a new clampdown on dissent that has seen many activists jailed to long prison terms on anti-state charges, could still … [Read more...] about Europe, Vietnam reach towards major trade deal
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She’s a brilliant, young legal mind. And her mission is to expunge the cannabis convictions of half a million Canadians
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By Paul Hunter Feature Writer Thu., Nov. 15, 2018 She was an intensely driven straight-A student; a church-once-a-week, confession-once-a-month Catholic teen who never used drugs and considered becoming a nun. Even as an adult, she rarely drinks and dabbled in marijuana only twice, calling the experiments a disaster. A high comes from chanting at a yoga retreat. On the surface, Annamaria Enenajor was an unlikely candidate to become the face of cannabis legalization reform in Canada. But as Canada edged towards decriminalizing marijuana, it was frequently Enenajor, as founder and campaign director of Cannabis Amnesty, on the airwaves pushing for the deletion of criminal records for the half-million Canadians with simple possession convictions. “I think it’s hilarious,” the Toronto criminal defence lawyer says of her leap from strait-laced legal eagle to passionate pot advocate. “I had this joke when I first started Cannabis Amnesty … [Read more...] about She’s a brilliant, young legal mind. And her mission is to expunge the cannabis convictions of half a million Canadians