Lord Pearson of Rannoch – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Pearson of Rannoch on 2015-10-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government why the United Kingdom does not have a free trade agreement with China, and what assessment they have made of whether such an agreement would help to boost trade between the United Kingdom and China.

Lord Maude of Horsham

The recent EU Trade Strategy emphasised the EU’s engagement in deepening and rebalancing our relationship with China in a mutually beneficial way. The ongoing negotiation of a bilateral investment agreement is the top priority towards this objective and will bring substantial benefits for both the UK and the EU. The UK Government fully supports the ambition of further deepening the EU-China relationship through an FTA. Whilst no formal assessment has yet been made to ascertain the impact of an FTA with China we anticipate the benefits will be significant.