Use Gulf trade deal to challenge human rights abuses, MPs urge UK

LONDON — Britain should use a coveted post-Brexit trade deal with a six-country bloc of Gulf nations to challenge “substantial and persistent human rights abuses,” a cross-party group of MPs urged Wednesday.

In a new report, the Commons international trade committee flagged “extreme concern” about human rights in the Gulf Cooperation Council, whose members include Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

British ministers are in talks with the bloc about a potential trade deal, as the U.K. seeks new partners in the wake of Brexit.

But human rights fears in GCC countries like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar have been highly publicized in recent years. Homosexuality is illegal in five of the six countries in the GCC and there are widespread concerns about the exploitation of workers across the bloc.

The UAE’s trade minister told POLITICO in March that the U.K. should not expect trade deals with the bloc if it tries to talk about human rights in trade talks.

While the cross-party group of MPs said a potential U.K. trade deal with the GCC would provide a “significant opportunity for U.K. exporters,” it said any agreement must also “reflect our values” and include human rights provisions.

The committee wants any future deal to force the GCC to meet “immediate and necessary standards” on protecting the rights of “minority groups, including women, and LGBTQ+ individuals.” They also call for U.K. ministers to use “diplomatic leverage” to “promote ambitious and tangible human rights reforms.”

“The government should also take specific measures to promote the interests of minority groups, such as removing tariff or non-tariff barriers that disproportionately affect women,” the committee said.

State of play

The U.K. has had three rounds of official negotiations with the GCC, with neither side expecting a deal any time soon. The bloc is notoriously difficult to strike deals with due to the complex nature of its member countries’ individual concerns.

The committee suggests the British government should potentially focus on deals with those individual states as it could be more “efficient” and “effective.” They said that “given the differing legal systems within the GCC and the bloc’s history as a trade actor,” such one-to-one deals “would allow us to push individual states further to be more ambitious with, for example, human rights provisions.”

Committee chair Angus MacNeil, a Scottish National Party MP, said ministers should set out a clear trade strategy to show “what sort of trading nation we want to be.”

The report — which marks the final output from the committee before it folds due to a government shake-up — wants that strategy to set out the U.K.’s trade “priorities in addition to purely economic considerations.”

A government spokesperson said: “We are negotiating a modern, ambitious deal with the GCC, which could increase trade by 16 percent and add £1.6 billion a year to the U.K. economy.

“The U.K. is a leading advocate for human rights. We continue to show global leadership in encouraging all states to uphold their international obligations and hold those who abuse human rights to account, including through our independent Global Human Rights sanctions regime.”