UK PM May says she wants free trade deal with China

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                             (World Today Wednesday 31 January 2018)

   UK PM May says she wants free trade deal with China

British Prime Minister Theresa May reviews honour guards during a welcoming ceremony

at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China. Mrs May says Britain is seeking a free trade agreement

with China and more should be done to open up market access for British firms. Photo: Reuters

Updated 31 January, 2018

WUHAN (CHINA) — Britain is seeking a free trade agreement with China, Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday (Jan 31) as she flew to the country for talks with Chinese leaders, adding that more should be done immediately to open up market access for British firms.

The ambitious long-term goal of securing a free trade deal with the world’s second-largest economy comes as Mrs May begins a three-day visit to China accompanied by businesses from sectors where Britain feels it can capitalise on China’s growing middle class consumers and rapidly expanding services sector.

“China is a country that we want to do a trade deal with,” she told reporters aboard her Royal Air Force jet on the way to Wuhan — a university city where she will announce half a billion pounds worth of education deals.

“But, I think that there is more we can be doing in the interim...in terms of looking at potential barriers to trade and the opening up of markets to ensure...British businesses able to do good trade into China.”

China accounts for just a small proportion of British exports, 3.1 per cent in 2016, compared with 43 per cent for the European Union (EU).

While diplomatic sources say China has expressed willingness to talk about a future free trade deal with Britain, formal talks cannot begin until Britain officially leaves the EU next year.

Free trade talks typically take many years to conclude.

Britain has also pushed a strong message to Chinese companies that it is fully open for business.

Notable Chinese investments in Britain include the Hinkley C nuclear power station which is being built by China General Nuclear Power Corp and the British arm of France’s EDF while British firms such as Rolls Royce have won large deals from Chinese firms to supply items like plane engines.

While she wants to increase trade with Beijing, Mrs May also strikes a more sceptical note about bilateral relations than her predecessor Mr David Cameron, saying in an opinion piece for the Financial Times that the two countries will “not always see eye-to-eye”. 
“But as partners committed to global free trade we can work together to confront and tackle challenges that affect all of our economies,” she said in the FT piece, adding that there is also the need to protect a rules-based approach that underpins and enables robust, sustainable, free-flowing global trade.

Both Mrs May and senior Chinese officials have restated their commitment to a “golden era” in ties but a row over Mrs May’s decision to delay approval for the Chinese-funded Hinkley nuclear plant in late 2016 chilled relations.

However, Britain was the first Western country to sign up to the China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and Britain sent Finance Minister Philip Hammond to a Beijing summit last year about President Xi Jinping’s flagship ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ — a trillion-dollar infrastructure-led push to build a modern Silk Road.

Mrs May said the Belt and Road had huge potential, but cautioned that the project had to be carried out in the proper way.

“What I would like to see is ensuring that we have transparency and international standards being adhered to, and I will be discussing that with my Chinese interlocutors,” she said.

Mrs May also said she would raise the future of Hong Kong in her meetings with Mr Xi, underlining Britain’s commitment to the ‘one country, two systems’ rule in the former British colony.

Britain’s last governor in Hong Kong before it was handed back to the Chinese, Mr Chris Patten, had written to Mrs May on Monday urging her to raise concerns over the “increasing threats to the basic freedoms, human rights and autonomy” in the territory.

Hong Kong was rocked by pro-democracy protests in 2014 in the largest show of defiance against Beijing rule since 1997.

The government has since cracked down on activists, including last week banning one from running in a by-election in March.

“We believe that the future of Hong Kong, that one country, two systems future is important. We are committed to that,” Mrs May said.

“I’ve raised this in the past with President Xi, and he’s shown commitment to that but I will continue to raise it with him.” AGENCIES