TELEGRAPH – BLOGS: Perhaps it’s not surprising that George Osborne chose China for his first major overseas trip as Chancellor, trumpeting the prospects of growing Britain’s exports to the Middle Kingdom as a route out of Britain’s economic morass.
“If you’re looking to answer the big question for Britain, which is where the growth is going to come from in the next few years, I think exports – and exports to an economy the size of China – is one place we should be looking,” he said.
But it was hard not to wonder how this ebullience could be squared with the recent pronouncements of the EU and US ambassadors to the WTO, who this week complained bitterly about China’s rampant and rising back-door protectionism.
The two ambassadors openly accused China of increasing barriers to market access over just the last two years – by being “highly selective” in granting access to foreign companies seeking to do business there, and “stagnating” its market access reforms.
Asked if he was concerned, a pallid Mr Osborne mustered only the usual line that, “It is in China’s interest and in our interest that we form an alliance against protectionist forces across the world.” What? But that’s the exactly point, dear Chancellor. As the two Ambassadors made clear, the “forces of protectionism” are right here, right now in China. Read on and comment >>> Peter Foster | Friday, June 04, 2010
