Chris Bryant Backs £3.7bn UK Trade Deal With Six Gulf States
chris bryant details the UK’s £3.7bn trade deal with six Gulf states, a move the government says will strip an estimated £580m a year in tariffs from British exports once fully implemented. The agreement covers Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and it gives British exporters a larger route into a market that now sits under one framework.
UK and GCC Deal
The deal is the first between a G7 country and the Gulf Cooperation Council states. That makes it the clearest trade prize yet for Sir Keir Starmer’s government, which now has three trade agreements after deals with India and South Korea.
British goods set to benefit include cheddar cheese, butter and chocolate. Those are the products named in the announcement, and they sit at the center of the tariff removal the government says will follow once the agreement is fully implemented.
Peter Kyle and Rachel Reeves
Business and Trade Secretary Peter Kyle said: “At a time of increased instability, today's announcement sends a clear signal of confidence – giving UK exporters the certainty they need to plan ahead.”
Chancellor Rachel Reeves called it “proof we are backing British firms to compete and win globally” and added: “This agreement is good for jobs, good for industry and ultimately good for consumers.” Starmer described the deal as “a huge win.”
Trade Justice Movement Warning
The deal has also drawn criticism from Trade Justice Movement, which said it “poses serious risks to human rights, labour protections, and climate action.” It also said the arrangement “locks the UK into deeper commercial ties with some of the most repressive governments in the world, for economic gains so marginal they barely register.”
The group’s criticism points to the friction inside the announcement: the government is selling market access and lower tariff costs, while rights campaigners are warning that the Gulf’s record includes restricting press freedom, using the death penalty, and producing high greenhouse gas emissions because of the six countries’ oil industries.
For exporters, the immediate practical change is the tariff cut. For ministers, the test is whether the £3.7bn headline turns into sales for firms shipping cheese, butter and chocolate into the Gulf, while the political argument over human rights and labour protections stays attached to the deal from day one.
