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LONDON — Shut up about human rights if you want to make deals in the Middle East.
That’s the warning from a gulf state minister ahead of trade negotiations due to begin Monday, as Britain seeks to deepen economic ties in the region.
In an interview with POLITICO, United Arab Emirates (UAE) Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi said the U.K. and other Western countries must “separate politics from trade and the economy.” The warning follows critical reporting on human rights abuses in the region during December’s World Cup in Qatar.
British ministers are in talks with the UAE and the five other Middle Eastern countries which make up the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) trade bloc about a potential trade deal, as the U.K. seeks new partners in the wake of its departure from the European Union.
Speaking to POLITICO in London, Al Zeyoudi said the U.K. must “tone down” standard human and workers’ rights provisions in trade deals “if they want more market access and more business opportunities.”
He went on: “The minute we bring politics into discussions, we are diluting from the main objective of the agreements.”
His words underscore the tensions for British ministers in operating in regions with vastly different human rights norms. They also come at a sensitive time for the British government after its bill to stop migrants arriving on small boats faced an international backlash. European Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson last week said she had told the U.K. she believes the plan “is violating international law.”
Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, which form the GCC along with Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait, have been heavily condemned by humanitarian organizations over the exploitation of workers, discrimination against women and repression of political opposition.
In search of new relationships
The view across government in recent years has been that Britain must expand its economic partnership with oil-rich Middle Eastern nations to make the most of post-Brexit opportunities.
“It’s very important for us to have allies in the Middle East and these are countries which are improving in many respects,” one minister said. “The only way we can try and influence countries like Saudi or Qatar in a number of areas is by closer economic cooperation.”
With the U.K. government keen to demonstrate the benefits of leaving the EU, the Department for Business and Trade has identified the Gulf states as potential growth markets for Britain’s heavyweight financial and professional services sectors.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is under pressure, not least from his predecessor Boris Johnson, to set aside qualms over human rights in order to develop new trading relationships.
Johnson said last week at a London conference that the UAE was “an absolutely amazing country,” adding: “We should be doing far, far more and there is a massive opportunity.”
The UAE and Qatar have already agreed to spend billions of pounds on British projects in sectors such as pharmaceuticals and green technology as part of U.K. government-brokered deals.
With friends like these
But trade unions and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have said that starting trade and investment talks with the GCC should have been unthinkable.
Rosa Crawford, policy officer at the Trades Union Congress, said: “The government should not be giving legitimacy to those countries by starting trade talks … it is giving them a gloss and a veneer of respectability.
“The U.K. government shouldn’t be negotiating trade deals on this race to the bottom model.”
Qatar has been widely condemned for exploiting migrant workers to build World Cup stadiums — thousands died in unsafe work conditions — and is currently at the center of an EU bribery scandal.
Independent trade unions are banned in UAE, which uses the kafala sponsorship system of exploitative monitoring of migrant workers, leading to modern slavery and human trafficking.
Saudi Arabia was linked to the alleged state-sanctioned murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 and, despite improvements, women are still treated as second-class citizens.
Homosexuality is illegal in five of the six countries and can be punishable by death in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Successive trade secretaries have continued with talks despite concerns, and the opposition Labour Party has toned down its own criticism of negotiations.
Asked about trade deals with countries including Saudi Arabia, a Labour shadow minister speaking anonymously said: “We’re just going to have to eat it.”
Separately, Shadow Trade Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds told POLITICO that “the next Labour government would abide by trade deals already signed and continue any ongoing negotiations,” but that “it is crucial that human rights, women’s rights and workers’ rights are embedded in U.K. trade negotiations.”
A government spokesperson said: “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.”
