SUMMARY
In March 2020 the UK Government introduced the Trade Bill in order to  manage UK trade policy after the Brexit transition period ended. The bill includes provisions on the implementation of international trading agreements, and establishes the Trade Remedies Authority among other provisions. Following the Third Reading in the house of Lords, a number of amendments were suggested, two of which focused on the conduct of trade with nations accused of human rights violations. In the most recent House of Commons Ping Pong, these amendments were narrowly rejected and the Bill has now returned to the Lords.
As Britain launches its global agenda as an independent nation, the UK is planning trade agreements with major trading partners around the world. In March 2020, the Trade Bill was introduced, in order to establish new regulations for organising trade deals in a post-Brexit world. On December 7th, the House of Lords proposed four amendments to the Bill, two of which (amendments 2 & 3) are related to human rights:
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Amendment Two:
‘Free trade agreements: determination on compliance with international obligations and state actions’
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Amendment Three:
‘Agreements with states accused of committing genocide’

These amendments would prevent the UK from entering into a trade agreement with states that have conducted ‘serious violations’ of human rights, in particular focused on
  1. the right to life
  2. the right not to be subjected to torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
  3. the right to be free from slavery and not held in servitude
and also revoke current agreements with states accused of committing genocide.

Arguably these amendments are aimed at China, where the happenings in Xinjiang in particular, are of concern to the UK government, but the question remains about what this could mean for the UK trading with other partners across the world.

Unfortunately, human rights abuses are commonplace, and they exist in every nation in the world – albeit to different extents. So how would such amendments be implemented and where would the line be drawn?

How would ‘serious violations’ be defined? The amendment does not attempt to classify what a serious breach of human rights is. Is there such a thing as a mild human rights breach? At what point would a violations of rights invoke this amendment?

Would our allies be excused from the same scrutiny because they are our allies? It is not difficult to write a list of violations of the right to life, to not be subject to cruel or degrading treatment and to be free from servitude in Western nations like the US, Australia, EU etc.

Is it based on prevalence or extent of abuses? The prevalence of slavery in China for example, is one of the lowest in Asia (GSI, 2018a) and is lower than in the Gulf States (GSI,2018b) – who we do $57.2bn of trade with annually (Cochrane, 2020).

Are certain human rights deemed to be more important than others when measuring violation for a trade agreement? Is the abuse of the Uyghurs in China more important than the abuse of black rights or Aboriginal rights in the US and Australia?
Below, we examined three of the UK’s trading partners – Australia, India and the United States – to identify the human rights abuses committed in these countries, and ask if a trade agreement would be possible under the proposed amendments.
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  • Australia ​
Australia and the UK have been in free trade agreement negotiations since June 2020 (DFAT, 2020). However, the Australian human rights record needs to be questioned. Treatment of asylum seekers in Australia has been described as inhumane due to their offshore detention and processing centres and the decision to remove income support and housing for those living in Australia. Moreover, indigenous populations in Australia are more prone to inhuman and discriminatory treatment (Human Rights Watch, 2019). At its most recent Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council, Australia continued to be criticised for its failure to make improvements of its treatment of refugees and asylum seekers, it’s treatment of Australia’s indigenous people and it’s low age of criminal culpability, which disproportionally affects Aboriginal communities (HRW, 2021).

  • India
The UK and India have strong historic ties. Between 2017 and 2018, UK exports to India increased by nearly a fifth (Great.gov.uk, 2018) and India is now the second largest investor in the UK economy (Jayawardena & Truss, 2020). However, if we examine the situation within India, there is a long list of human rights abuses that could derail any future trade agreement. Firstly, there are an estimated 14-18 million people in slave labour in India (Armstrong, 2018) and secondly, Indian prisons have been described as having ‘inhuman conditions’ which are ‘frequently life threatening (Home Office, 2019:15) and India has failed to ratify the UN Convention on Torture or implement its own national anti-torture laws (Home Office, 2019). Moreover, India is currently on genocide watch in two states – Kashmir and Assam State – where there are large Muslim populations (Genocide Watch).
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  • ​United States of America
The US and the UK have a special relationship, and the US is currently the UK’s largest trading partner (ONS, 2020). However, the US has continuously been moving backwards on human rights (Human Rights Watch, 2020). An estimated 45,000 people die every year in the US due to a lack of healthcare (Heavy, 2009), there are an estimated 1,000 people shot and killed annually by police, in-custody death rate is 6x higher than in the UK (Picheta & Pettersson, 2020) and ICE detention centres have been accused of a horrifying list of human rights abuses (Berlaysky, 2020), demonstrating that the US government is supporting violations to the right to life and the right not to be treated in a cruel or inhumane manner.
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The amendments were narrowly rejected during the most recent Ping Pong in the House of Commons on January 19th - amendment 2 by 364 votes to 267 and amendment 3 by 319 votes to 308, with the next Lords Ping Pong scheduled for early February, it remains to be seen what the future of the trade bill will hold.


References
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Armstrong, C (2018) India is Home to the World’s Largest Slave Population (Yes, Slavery Still Exists), Scroll.in https://scroll.in/article/898862/india-is-home-to-the-worlds-largest-slave-population-yes-slavery-still-exists

Berlatsky, N (2020) The ICE Whistleblower has Spoken. The People We’ve Tortured Deserve Immediate Citizenship, Independent The ICE whistleblower has spoken. The people we’ve tortured deserve immediate citizenship | The Independent

Cochrane, P (2020) One Month Until ‘Brexit’: Is The UK Looking to Seal a Gulf Free Trade Deal?, Middle Easy Eye https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/brexit-uk-gulf-free-trade-deal-seal

DFAT (2020) Australia-United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement, Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade https://www.dfat.gov.au/trade/agreements/negotiations/aukfta

Genocide Watch, Genocide Alerts: Current Alerts https://www.genocidewatch.com/countries-at-risk

Global Slavery Index (2018a) Regional Analysis: Asia and the Pacific https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/2018/findings/regional-analysis/asia-and-the-pacific/

Global Slavery Index (2018b) Regional Analysis: Arab States https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/2018/findings/regional-analysis/arab-states/

Great.gov.uk (2018) Exporting to India https://www.great.gov.uk/markets/India/#:~:text=UK%20exports%20to%20India%20increased,2018%20(ONS%2C%202018).

Heavy, S (2009) Study Links 45,000 US Deaths to Lack of Insurance, Reuters Study links 45,000 U.S. deaths to lack of insurance | Reuters

Home Office (2019) Country Policy and Information Note, India: Prison Conditions, Version 3.0 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/846262/India_-_Prisons_-_CPIN_-_v3.0__November_2019_.pdf

Human Rights Watch (2019) Australia: Events of 2018, https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/australia
Human Rights Watch (2020) United States: Events of 2019 World Report 2020: United States | Human Rights Watch (hrw.org)

Human Rights Watch (2021) Australia: Address Abuses Raised at UN Review: Countries Criticize Failures on Refugees, Children, Indigenous Rights, Human Rights Watch https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/01/21/australia-address-abuses-raised-un-review

Jayawardena, R and Truss, E (2020) UK and India Agree to Deeper Trading Relationship, Department of International Trade, UK Government https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-and-india-agree-to-deeper-trading-relationship

ONS (2020) UK Trading Partners and Trade Relationships: 2020 https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/internationaltrade/articles/uktradingpartnersananalysisoftraderelationships/2020#:~:text=1.-,Main%20points,unspecified%20goods%20in%20this%20period.

​Picheta, R and Pettersson, H (2020) American Police Shoot, Kill and Imprison More People Than Other Developed Countries. Here’s the Data, CNN The US shoots, kills and imprisons more people than other developed countries. Here's what the data says - CNN

Author

​ALEXANDRA CRAGGS, RESEARCHER, THE DECISION PROBLEM