PRIME Minister Rishi Sunak’s proposed trade deal with India will not include legally enforceable commitments on employment rights or environmental standards.

In January last year the Tory government said the British government was committed to negotiating enforceable labour and environment chapters as it laid out its strategic approach. 

“We remain committed to upholding our high environmental, labour, food safety and animal welfare standards in our trade agreement with India.”

But Sunak is now going hell for leather to secure a trade deal with India before the next general election.

It appears he is prepared to dump clauses on the environment and employment rights to get deal “at any cost.”

The Tory government’s strategy in regard to trade deals which, following Brexit, they promised would be a “walk in the park” is falling apart.

Britain was not involved in the recent proposed G20 pact to build a trade and economic corridor linking Europe, the Middle East and India. 

The Australia and New Zealand trade deals secured by Liz Truss have been widely ridiculed, as delivering little in the way of benefits to Britain.

The deal with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CTPPT) provides little benefit to the UK compared to the loss of membership of the EU single market and the EU customs union – and poses threats to workers’ rights as the TUC https://protect-eu.mimecast.com/s/6sj5C6BWyTVDNgLCpxoEP?domain=tuc.org.uk has said.

Most other trade deals are simply cut and paste rollovers from previous EU deals.

Days after Sunak’s meeting with Indian PM Narendra Modi, the government team lead by trade minister Kemi Badenoch shared the deal’s employment and environment chapters with businesses, unions and trade experts on a September 13 briefing call.

Key enforceable dispute resolution powers which Britain set out to negotiate are missing from those chapters which means neither we nor India can hold the other to their climate, environmental and workers’ rights commitments.

British business and trade unions say such a deal will undercut business because Indian firms operate less stringent and expensive environmental and employment standards.

This is a consequence of British companies and trade unions being excluded from the trade talks as talks progressed.

“Suppression of trade unions, child labour and forced labour are all widespread in India,” said Rosa Crawford, trade expert at the TUC. 

“But the labour chapter that the UK government has negotiated cannot be used to clamp down on these abuses and could lead to more good jobs being offshored to exploitative jobs in India.”

Speaking under the cloak of anonymity one British business person told the Politico website: “Industry also wants binding commitments — partly for greater certainty, partly because businesses are made up of people who themselves want to be properly treated and to avoid climate catastrophe.”

But Indian and British officials say the employment and environment chapters are now closed and are not up for discussion. 

As the deal stands if either country were to weaken its environmental standards or workers’ rights the other party would not have recourse to initiate consultations on changes in laws as there is no dispute settlement in the environment and employment  chapters.
 
The deal “is dire for working people because trade unions were excluded from the trade talks,” said Rosa Crawford. 

Britain’s trade minister Kemi Badenoch closed the forums in February this year to carry out a required review of their activities. International Trade Minister Nigel Huddleston received officials’ recommendations to restructure the groups in mid-August. 

“It’s high time the government rethinks its approach,” said the Rosa Crawford, “and includes unions in trade talks — that’s how you get trade deals that work for working people.”

The TUC and Indian trade unions have been in regular dialogue from the moment the talks began and in 2021 the TUC issued a document to the DIT which included concerns from Indian unions setting out its concerns on issues such as employment rights, food security, public services and can be found here. https://www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/2021-09/TUC%20DIT%20UK-India%20consultation%20response.pdf (https://protect-eu.mimecast.com/s/2W8KC7p9zIEqg0GtWqdiS?domain=tuc.org.uk)

Tony Burke is Co-Chair of the Campaign For Trade Union Freedom.