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The Star
5 days ago
- Business
- The Star
Roundup: UK-China trade relationship gains momentum amid global uncertainty, say industry leaders
LONDON, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Business leaders and industry representatives expressed optimism about the evolving trade relationship between Britain and China on Thursday, speaking on the sidelines of the Global Britain Trade Expo 2025, an annual trade forum designed to help businesses expand internationally. Held at London's Queen Elizabeth II Centre, the forum drew senior decision-makers and executives from more than 36 countries. Despite mounting geopolitical and economic uncertainty, many participants saw continued opportunities for expanding trade between Britain and China. Marco Forgione, director general of the Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade, told Xinhua that while recent global disruptions have presented challenges, there remains significant potential in bilateral trade. "It would be foolhardy to imagine that the future of electric vehicles, or many other sectors, doesn't herald a partnership between the UK and China," he said. "If we are to address climate change, economic deprivation, health inequalities, and educational exclusion... the only way we do that is through collaboration," Forgione added. John McLean, chairman of the China-Britain Business Development Centre, described the trade atmosphere between the two countries as having "markedly changed" since mid-2023, following visits by several senior British officials to China. "There's a pragmatic approach being adopted by both China and the UK, which is welcome for business," he said. "The opportunity is now -- go get on that plane and go to China." From a business perspective, Jack Wu, managing partner at Acadia Advisory Group, now joining the forum for the second year, noted a surge in interest from British companies entering the Chinese market. "Since last year, we've seen many British companies coming to China across various sectors: food and beverage, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, universities and training schools, and luxury brands," Wu said. He noted that British firms are leveraging China's fast-growing e-commerce platforms to overcome distribution challenges. Echoing Wu's view, Molly Ling, CEO of Shopfever Group Limited, said China's expanding e-commerce ecosystem and favorable regulatory changes have created a competitive edge for British and European brands. "China was the biggest e-commerce market in the world in 2023, nearly double the size of the United States, and at least four times that of the UK," she said. Ling also pointed to China's favorable tax schemes and significantly lower platform fees compared to the U.S. as key advantages. Amid concerns about the global impact of U.S. tariffs, Forgione emphasized that the most damaging effect of tariffs is the uncertainty they create. "You've had an escalation of tariffs and then those tariffs are cut, and then this morning you hear that a federal court says the U.S. tariffs are unconstitutional -- all that does is create uncertainty and instability," he said. "There's no use harking back to a time of certainty, because in truth, it never existed. The clarion call we must all answer is to get trade flowing -- that's how we confront the systemic challenges we face," Forgione added. McLean echoed this point of view: "For businesses, uncertainty is the death word. It stops everything because planning becomes impossible. How long is your investment period? What might change in the meantime? The risk of expanding abroad is constantly under challenge." He added that China stands out for its policy consistency. "I think China has stability. With the current global instability, China has the advantage to accelerate that consistency and help others believe it's time to start trading with, or at least looking at, China," McLean told Xinhua. "We now live in a volatile world, but China is still implementing its five-year plans." Ling also noted that shifting priorities due to tariffs are redirecting business attention: "European and UK brands used to focus mostly on the U.S. -- their biggest market. But now they're forced to look elsewhere, and this has allowed businesses like us to help them understand both the UK and European context and the Chinese market." Winnie Seow Mei, international markets lead at Hawksford UK Services Limited, also voiced confidence in long-term trends. "We've seen that trade between the UK and China has actually increased," she said. "There is still strong interest from British brands looking to expand into the Chinese market."
The Hindu
20-05-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
With U.S. and E.U. deals, Britain embarks on high-risk balancing act
Britain's pursuit of trade deals with the European Union and United States, while courting China, has made it a test case for navigating U.S. President Donald Trump's unpredictable new world order. A historically open nation, reliant on global commerce, Britain has secured several trade accords since Trump's sweeping tariffs unleashed a trade war. It negotiated a free trade deal with India, tariff relief from Washington and repositioned itself closer to the European Union on defence, energy and agriculture. The approach has tested the patience of the United States, China and the EU, three major trade powers that make up two-thirds of Britain's trade, and any limited economic benefits are likely to take time to emerge, analysts say. Martin Donnelly, formerly the chief civil servant in Britain's trade ministry, said there were no "easy or cheap wins" in the current environment and the government risked "being shut out by the three big trade blocs" if it gets the strategy wrong. In a fragmented world, trade analysts said Britain had accepted its role as a satellite in the United States' security and tech orbit, giving Washington oversight of some supply chains and steel ownership that could squeeze out China. It fended off U.S. demands for increased access to its food markets so it could align itself more closely with Brussels, with that deal eased by the EU's desire for tighter military ties with Britain. It is also trying to improve ties with China: to secure inward investment and consumer goods, to sell its financial services to China's elite, while trying to avoid sharing sensitive technologies that could anger the United States. Marco Forgione, head of the Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade, said some of the 80,000 British businesses that export were already restructuring supply chains to ringfence high-risk sectors, including defence and AI. "They need a strategy that works with all major markets," he said, adding that an approach that deals with the EU, U.S. and China differently across sectors made sense, "but only if our partners see it as coherent and not opportunistic". One trade official, who has worked in London and Brussels, said Britain had extracted concessions from Trump that the U.S. president would be unwilling to give to Europe, and that it had also accepted a satellite status that would likely be anathema to Brussels. The official, who asked not to be named due to his government work, said the challenge ahead was to keep all partners on side. Tortorous post-Brexit negotiations Britain became an independent trading nation in 2020 after four years of tortuous negotiations following its vote to leave the EU. Advocates of Brexit had said it would free the country to strike trade deals with faster growing economies in Asia. Proponents also wanted it to build on the strong security ties Britain had with the U.S., to incorporate greater trade in food and goods, but that failed to materialise. Britain's budget forecaster believes the post-Brexit weakening of trade will lead to the economy's potential productivity being 4% smaller after 15 years than it would have been if it had remained in the bloc. Weighed down by 2.8 trillion pounds ($3.7 trillion) of debt and with an economy that is struggling to grow, it seeks alliances to deliver growth, and security in a more uncertain world. Paul Drechsler, who is on the board of the UK's business and trade department and has led companies in Britain and abroad, said the recent deals would help to build trust. "It's just such an important time, both in terms of geopolitics, but also in terms of the economy globally, we need to do things that will get trade going," he said. Britain became the first country to get a reduction in U.S. tariffs when it announced a limited deal with Trump to lower levies on cars and steel, but it retained the baseline 10% U.S. tariff, despite having balanced trade with the United States. Janka Oertel, director of the Asia programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said that would have angered the EU, Japan and others that wanted a united front against Trump. That U.S. deal could also be a challenge to ties with China, especially given security clauses on steel that give the U.S. the potential to exclude China from the British steel industry. Starmer's government has made improving ties with China one of its main foreign policy goals since it was elected last July, after successive Conservative governments sparred with Beijing over human rights, Hong Kong, investment and security concerns. A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in London said agreements between countries should not target other nations and that China was prepared to respond "as necessary". Ms. Oertel said Britain could find itself in an awkward situation if China goes "very hard on the UK to scare others into not signing on to these agreements". "What the UK has managed to do is kind of make itself the guinea pig," she said, "and I'm not sure that's a comfortable position to be in."
The Independent
19-03-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Brexit created ‘mind blowing' 2bn extra pieces of paperwork - enough to wrap around world 15 times
Brexit has created a 'mind blowing' nearly two billion extra pieces of paperwork for businesses - enough to wrap around the world 15 times. If they were all laid end to end they would also reach to the moon and half way back again, an analysis of research by the Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade by the Liberal Democrats found. Lib Dem trade spokesperson Clive Jones said it showed the scale of red tape plaguing British businesses since the UK's withdrawal from Europe. He said: 'The Conservatives' botched Brexit deal is suffocating businesses, tying them up in a Gordian Knot of red tape, as they try to export our fantastic British products and produce across the world. These figures are mind blowing.' The party is calling on the government to negotiate a bespoke UK-EU customs union to free businesses from the bureaucracy – which has pushed up prices on the high street. Marks & Spencer recently revealed that it has had to rent a warehouse just to store its piles of Brexit paperwork, that the retailer's chairman said 'nobody looked at in the first place'. Archie Norman said ' it is quite extraordinary… you wouldn't believe it ' that the retailer has to store thousands of pages of documents in a warehouse in the Republic of Ireland for six years after taking food across the border. The official Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) also estimates that the size of the economy over the long term will be four per cent smaller than it would have been without Brexit. The Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade found an estimated 2 billion additional pieces of paper had been used by those exporting to the EU since the UK left the bloc. The Liberal Democrat analysis also calculated that those extra pieces of paper would reach the height of Mount Everest 66,751 times over, have to be extracted from 248,603 trees and be worth £19.5 million in A4 paper alone. But the party said the true cost could be higher as its analysis assumed that each piece of paper was printed just once. Mr Jones said every second spent filling out the forms was 'time that these businesses could be using to think about expanding to help grow our economy. Which we all agree is very much needed.' He added: 'The extra red tape created by the botched Brexit deal is adding more financial strain on businesses as they waste time fumbling through this tangled web of even more red tape. 'The Labour government cannot put its head in the sand and pretend that these barriers do not exist. It is time they face up to reality and realise that unless we put this extra burden of red tape on a bonfire we will not get the meaningful growth needed to rebuild our public services and protect people's finances. That means negotiating a bespoke UK-EU Customs Union by the end of the decade.'
Bloomberg
27-01-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Bloomberg UK Politics: Look Who's Talking
President Trump and Keir Starmer had their first phone call since the inauguration, discussing trade and a meeting of the two leaders "soon". With Trump calling the Prime Minister "a very good person", how hopeful can the UK be of a strong relationship with the new White House? This after Trump threatened sweeping tariffs on Latin American ally Colombia at the weekend and won compliance on migrant deportations within hours. We discuss the risks for the UK with Marco Forgione - Director General of the Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade. Hosted by James Woolcock and Caroline Hepker.
