Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds has said he is “open to having a conversation” about reviving trade talks with China.
The cabinet minister told Politico he was “certainly” prepared to discuss reopening the UK-China Joint Economic and Trade Commission (JETCO), which was set up to improve bilateral trade and investment between the two nations.
It was frozen by the previous Conservative government after China clamped down on Hong Kong.
It comes as senior ministers prepare to boost engagement with the Asian superpower, with foreign secretary David Lammy set to visit Beijing and Shanghai later this month.
While Chancellor Rachel Reeves is in discussions over a visit to China for a key financial services trade summit in early 2025, Sky News reported last month.
Reynolds told Politico: “China is simultaneously a significant part of the global economy, our sixth largest trading partner in the UK, and at the same time it’s not the same as a European country or the U.S. or Canada, or the conversation we’ve been having with Brazil here.
“It’s a relationship where sometimes you’ve got to have quite difficult conversations because you’re unhappy with moves on the Chinese side, but at the same time, where cooperation is possible with China, trade is [a] space where you’d expect that to be taking place.”
China pork export restrictions
He stressed that Britain would have its own trade asks of Beijing if the two countries do reengage, and said he highlighted the issue of continued “pandemic restrictions on pork exports to China” at the recent G20 trade and investment ministers’ meeting.
Reynolds said the suspension of UK abattoirs’ licences to export to China, during the Covid-19 pandemic, “had a material impact on my local area where a factory closed on the back of that situation.”
He added: “Obviously, what I want to know is, if [the JETCO] were to be reinstated, would it be a substantive way to resolve some of these issues?”
And he argued compared to other G7 nations’ relationships with China, “the UK is an outlier by how little engagement we have had”.
While “many senior US politicians and cabinet members are regularly engaging with Chinese counterparts”, he said, adding: “It’s a lot more than us.”