The International Trade Committee today publishes its report on UK trade
negotiations with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
The Committee’s report assesses key areas of opportunity and risk
around the ongoing negotiations with the alliance of six Gulf
states. It also highlights major regional concerns including on
human rights and weak environmental standards, and calls on the
Government to ensure UK values and obligations are not
compromised by any deal.
The cross-party Committee of MPs expresses its extreme concern
about substantial and persistent human rights abuses in GCC
countries, particularly women’s, LGBTQ+ and labour rights. The
MPs recommend the Government evaluates the likely impact of an
agreement on human rights in the GCC, including specific
assessments on the impact on both women and LGBTQ+ people, ahead
of signing a deal.
The Committee notes that a deal with the GCC raises questions as
to how the UK wants to be perceived as a trading nation. This is
epitomised in issues around values, human rights and standards.
The MPs call for any deal to contain binding commitments
protecting people and the environment, including:
- Setting standards and future aspirations for the rights of
minority groups, women and LGBTQ+ people.
- Tightening UK modern slavery laws to ensure the UK does not
become complicit in labour rights abuses through its supply
chains.
- Pledges on decarbonisation and tackling the risk of carbon
leakage.
The Committee notes that a deal with the GCC presents a
significant opportunity for UK exporters, and in particular for
the agri-food, green tech, renewable goods and financial services
sectors.
To make the most of the deal, the Government will need to
provide further support and guidance to exporters, including
targeted sector specific support and the publication of a
comprehensive trade strategy.
The lack of a trade strategy, an issue the Committee has
repeatedly raised, also means that MPs have been unable to fully
understand the Government’s position on key aspects of the trade
negotiations. The Government also failed to provide a Minister to
give evidence to the Committee, a pattern of behaviour in dodging
Parliamentary scrutiny which the Committee has criticised previously.
Commenting on the report, , Chair of the
International Trade Committee, said:
“A trade deal with the GCC, like any major free trade agreement,
of course represents a potential economic opportunity for the UK.
But this particular deal is about something even more important.
The approach we take here will be about how we see ourselves as a
society, how we are seen around the world, and whether we are
willing to put our values on human rights and the environment on
the negotiating table.
“We have heard promises in the past that more trade will not come
at the expense of human rights. But the UK is negotiating a trade
deal with a bloc including countries that the Government itself
has assessed as having particularly concerning human rights
issues.
“The Government needs to make plain what sort of trading nation
we want to be. A trade strategy and transparent approach to
scrutiny from a Minister would have been helpful in this regard,
but with no strategy forthcoming and the Department’s refusal to
send a Minister to speak to our Committee, it is difficult to
assess whether we will be getting the right deal which will
benefit the UK and its people.”
