Trade

New figures from the Office for National Statistics show that, since the second quarter of 2020, the UK has imported more goods from China than from any other country  For the first time since modern records began, China has outstripped Germany to become the UK’s largest single import market. According to a report from the Office for National Statistics published in late May 2021, goods imported from China reached £16.9 …

Using case studies including Apple, Uniqlo and Dyson, among others, Yuqing Xing’s new book explores how global value chains have offered an alternative path for China to achieve industrialisation, turbocharging the economic learning curve. Paul French finds out more. On a surface level, it’s a well-known story: over the last quarter century, China has emerged as the world’s largest exporting nation with more than £1.4 trillion GBP of exports annually. …

Joe Biden’s USD 1.9 trillion stimulus package will further boost Chinese exports to the US, but a stronger dollar could also increase costs for commodities and foreign investment in China, writes Torsten Weller. US President Joe Biden has achieved his first major legislative success, after signing a huge USD 1.9 trillion stimulus package into law on 11 March. The bill includes direct payments of up to USD 1,400 to American …

HMA Dame Caroline Wilson was recently appointed Ambassador to China and has arrived at a time of increased diplomatic challenges. Here she tells Tom Pattinson about her goals on trade and the climate. What are some of your personal goals and aims that you would like to achieve during your time as Ambassador? My priority will be to establish a robust relationship that allows us to manage our disagreements with …

The cost of shipping increased by over 350% last year as lockdowns unleashed unprecedented demand for consumer goods from China, and there is no indication that costs are going to come down anytime soon. The cost of shipping between China and the UK increased by over 350% last year, severely impacting companies that rely on being able to move goods and manufactured parts between the two markets economically. The cost …

Paul French interviews Geoffery Gresh – author of ‘To Rule Eurasia’s Waves: The New Great Power Competition at Sea’ – about the Maritime Silk Road, transparency and the UK’s potential role Geoffrey F. Gresh’s ‘To Rule Eurasia’s Waves: The New Great Power Competition at Sea’ (Yale University Press) is a sweeping study of the situation concerning the vital sea lanes running from Asia to North America, Europe and the UK. …

Mark Hedley explains how to help companies confront the challenges of expanding into China China’s global profile has boomed in the first two decades of the 21st century, drawing attention to its politics, economics and culture. While the growing importance of China and its relationship to the world is often framed as complicated, one thing remains unequivocal – the allure and potential of the enormous Chinese market. The China-Britain Business Council …

It could hardly have been a busier end to 2020 for Europe’s trade negotiators. A post-Brexit agreement with the UK signed just before Christmas ended up being merely an hors d’oeuvre to what the European Commission has described as its ‘most ambitious’ deal ever with a third party – a Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) with China. At the beginning of 2020, an agreement between the European Union and China …

Paul French tracks down mysterious author and businessman Jack Leblanc to find out more about his new book, Why Your CEO Failed in China Back in 2008, an anonymous foreign businessman in China decided to call himself Jack Leblanc and examine why so many businesses failed in the PRC. His thoughts back then were published as ‘Business Republic of China’, a warts-and-all take on running a foreign venture in China. …

Whether Donald Trump is re-elected, or Joe Biden becomes the next president, there is little doubt that the United States will continue to pursue hardline policies with China, writes James McGregor, Greater China Chairman at APCO Worldwide The belief that China is an untrustworthy bad actor at home and abroad is the one bipartisan issue in today’s deeply divided Washington. The consensus that China was on a path to become …