Yesterday some 31.4 bn of trade agreements with China were announced by the government to coincide with Chinese premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to Britian. The ban on poultry exports to China has been lifted but even with these helpful developments, the trade gap between the UK and China will remain huge.
China exported £17bn more to the UK in goods and services than the UK exported to them in 2009. Our export performance has been well below potential for the past 30 years, but China also needs to make structural changes to help us exploit their huge markets.
