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China should be top of post-Brexit wish list on trade, says British Chamber as it rejects ‘external pressure’
- Questions raised among British businesses as to why China is not a priority country for a trade agreement, its report says
- It warns British government that ‘populist and protectionist politics can disrupt international relationships’
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The British government should resist “external political pressure” and promote dialogue with China, according to a British business organisation that is questioning its exclusion from a list of countries Britain will prioritise as it seeks post-Brexit trade agreements.
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“The UK’s approach to China must be balanced and informed and must not be swayed by external political pressures,” the British Chamber of Commerce in China said in an annual position paper published on Tuesday.
The report comes with Chinese-British tensions simmering again over the handling of the Covid-19 outbreak, and over the national security legislation that Beijing is imposing on Hong Kong, raising questions regarding the partial autonomy guaranteed for the former British colony on its 1997 handover to China.
China is nonetheless Britain’s third-largest export market after the European Union and the United States, and its fifth biggest trade partner.
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European Parliament bids farewell to United Kingdom with ‘Auld Lang Syne’
European Parliament bids farewell to United Kingdom with ‘Auld Lang Syne’
Its trade with China rose 17.6 per cent in 2019 from the previous year to 714 billion yuan or 81.4 billion pounds (now worth US$101 billion), according to official British data.
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