Dismay as UK prepares to signal ‘values-free’ £1.6bn business handle Gulf states

The UK is getting ready to signing a £1.6bn business settlement with Gulf states, amid warnings from rights teams that the deal makes no concrete provisions on human rights, fashionable slavery or the surroundings.

The handle the Gulf Cooperation Council – which incorporates the international locations Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – is inside touching distance, making it a fourth buying and selling settlement via Keir Starmer after pacts had been struck with the United States, India and the EU.

The UK has mentioned it hopes the deal will ultimately upload an additional £8.6bn a 12 months to business between the United Kingdom and GCC international locations via 2035. Sources just about the negotiations within the oil-rich area mentioned the deal used to be now at its ultimate phases they usually anticipated UK settlement imminently.

The deal might be in particular recommended for the auto business and monetary products and services, although estimates recommend {that a} unfastened business settlement can be value not up to 0.1% of GDP over the following decade.

However, there’s more likely to be a backlash over a deal on rooster imports, the place decrease animal welfare requirements may considerably undercut British farmers.

The TUC is amongst those that have advised warning over the deal and has raised considerations with ministers, the Guardian understands.

Human rights teams have up to now mentioned the United Kingdom must no longer finalise a unfastened business settlement with out prison commitments on human rights enhancements, particularly for migrant employees.

They mentioned that the United Kingdom and GCC must have robust human rights prerequisites in any long term settlement and the United Kingdom must supply its personal impartial have an effect on review transparently at the doable penalties of deepening business ties.

Another supply just about the talks advised that although there have been more likely to be some language round human rights as a part of the commitments, there have been no prison responsibilities concerned.

A spokesperson for the Department for Business and Trade mentioned: “Negotiations on a trade deal with the GCC are ongoing. Our priority is to get the right deal, and we’re not setting a deadline.” A departmental supply mentioned there used to be an opportunity a pause can be wanted for Eid al-Adha, which starts on 6 June.

The UK-GCC business settlement could also be more likely to have an have an effect on on the United Kingdom’s internet 0 ambitions, with all six GCC international locations score within the best 10 according to capita for carbon emissions.

The TUC’s common secretary, Paul Nowak, mentioned: “The TUC has raised concerns directly with ministers about a trade deal with the Gulf states and we will continue to do so.

“Our view on trade deals is consistent – the government should not agree deals with countries that abuse human rights and workers’ rights, and violate international law. It was right for the government to suspend trade talks with Israel.

“We will continue to make the case with ministers for a trade agenda with workers at its heart – and to press the issue of labour standards and human rights in the Gulf states and other countries.”

Tom Wills, the director of the Trade Justice Movement, mentioned: “The UK-GCC trade deal is a values-free agreement that will offer minimal benefit to the UK economy while signalling that human rights and environmental protections are not a priority in UK trade policy.

“The government has chosen to finalise this deal without publishing a human rights impact assessment, securing binding commitments on labour rights or environmental standards, or allowing parliament any meaningful scrutiny. It’s a continuation of a secretive, short-term approach to trade that puts corporate access above public values.”

Wills mentioned that heat phrases round rights within the deal would nonetheless imply it fell wanting similar requirements. “When we see progressive language in a trade deal – around supporting workers or the environment – we always ask the same question: is it binding? Will there be consequences for failing to uphold standards? If not, these warm words aren’t worth the paper they’re written on,” he mentioned.

Ministers also are more likely to face a backlash from the National Farmers’ Union over the rural sides of the deal. Industry figures informed the Guardian that the deal may come with uncapped get entry to for chickens if the imports met hygiene requirements.

Those requirements don’t quilt welfare, sparking alarm amongst farmers who’ve just lately needed to meet new, upper necessities below British regulation.

Negotiations were led via business minister Douglas Alexander, who is ready to conclude paintings began below the Conservatives, which used to be as soon as noticed as a extra concrete prospect than the India deal, signed a fortnight in the past. Alexander is predicted to fulfill his counterpart for ultimate signoff.

The earlier business minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan had promised in parliament that the deal “will not come at the expense of human rights”.

MPs have identified that there’s precedent for together with rights considerations in business deal, such because the bankruptcy on Indigenous peoples within the New Zealand deal which makes commitments on their phase of their country’s long term growth.

Nick Thomas-Symonds, who used to be then shadow business secretary, mentioned in opposition that it used to be “crucial that human rights, women’s rights and workers’ rights are embedded in UK trade negotiations”.

But in the latest exchanges below the Labour executive, Lords business minister Baroness Jones mentioned that even though the United Kingdom used to be a “leading advocate for human rights around the world … this work takes place separately to negotiations on free trade agreements.

“While aspects of trade policy can provide the opportunity to address other issues in a bilateral relationship, free trade agreements are not generally the most effective or targeted tool to advance human rights issues,” she informed the Lords closing 12 months.

The UAE business minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed al-Zeyoudi informed Politico in 2023 that the United Kingdom and different western international locations should “tone down” same old human and employees’ rights provisions in business offers “if they want more market access and more business opportunities”.

Trade with the bloc is value about £59bn a 12 months, in line with executive estimates, as the United Kingdom’s seventh-largest export marketplace, with a business deal anticipated to extend business via about 16%. Individual Gulf states may additionally pursue their very own deeper partnerships with the United Kingdom and sovereign wealth budget in Gulf countries together with Saudi Arabia and the UAE were one of the most greatest overseas buyers in the United Kingdom.

The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, and Alexander selected the Gulf for his or her first joint global consult with after the election. Starmer visited Saudi Arabia in December.

The UK has up to now pledged that the deal is not going to compromise environmental, public well being, animal welfare and meals requirements, made the entire extra urgent as a result of the agrifoods deal the United Kingdom hopes to seal with the EU within the coming months. The NHS and well being products and services are excluded from the deal.

Technology, innovation and monetary products and services will shape a key a part of the deal which could also be more likely to have some paintings and visa provisions for businesspeople from each the United Kingdom and the Gulf states – any other space that might impress assault from the Conservatives and Reform, although many of the deal used to be negotiated below the Tories.

Joey Shea, a Saudi Arabia and UAE researcher at Human Rights Watch, mentioned: “Finalising a UK-GCC trade agreement without concrete rights protections would be a grave mistake with grim consequences for migrant workers across the Gulf.”

Polling performed via the Trades Justice Movement in November 2024 advised there used to be public opposition to the deal, with simply 21% of other people in favour.

The TUC up to now submitted proof all the way through the Conservative negotiations over the deal, pronouncing that the “kafala” machine – which comes to binding migrant employees to a selected employer – had entrenched fashionable slavery and exploited thousands and thousands of migrant employees.