'UK Starts Free Trade Talks With Gulf States, But Human Rights Seem Off The Menu', 14 October 2022

The UK and the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council have formally launched talks on a free trade deal, against a backdrop of political upheaval in London.

The UK government said in a statement on October 13 that the first round of negotiations had taken place virtually, with 33 sessions held between August 22 and September 29. The two sides exchanged technical information, set out their objectives for a deal and held preliminary discussions across 29 policy areas.

In its statement, the UK government said that it would "not compromise on our high environmental and labour protections, public health, animal welfare and food standards.”

However, there was noticeably no mention of human rights issues. That is likely to be a cause of concern for some observers.

A previous set of diplomatic discussions between the UK and the GCC in December 2021 also appeared to avoid talks of human rights, leading to criticism from among others Brendan O’Hara MP, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Democracy and Human Rights in the Gulf.

Human rights issues have previously proved fatal to efforts to negotiate a free trade deal between the GCC and the European Union. Since leaving the EU, Britain has been able to strike its own free trade deals – although the record suggests they have offered few benefits over the deals that the UK had been party to when still a member of the European bloc...