The News
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy is expected to visit China next week, signaling a shift toward less confrontational ties with the world’s second-largest economy. The diplomatic mission comes even as the European Union remains at an impasse with Beijing over electric vehicle tariffs.
The UK’s new Labour government has described recalibrating relations with China an “epoch-defining challenge,” and expressed willingness to resume talks on Beijing-backed investments to help boost the UK’s ailing economy, even as it remains critical over China’s human-rights record.
Lammy’s visit comes even as “significant disagreements” on trade remain between China and the European Union. In response to the EU’s recent vote to impose tariffs of up to 45% on Chinese-made EVs, China has threatened retaliatory tariffs on European goods, including dairy, brandy, pork, and automobile parts.
Analysts say that there is a limit to China’s ability to strike back, however. Luxury goods from Europe are unlikely to face tariffs, since they generate higher tax revenues, and anything that might put off increasingly thrifty Chinese consumers from spending money may be “the opposite of what the government wants.”
