Trading Relations: USA, EU and China

Lord Alton of Liverpool Excerpts

Monday 7th November 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Alton of Liverpool (CB)]

My Lords, what does the noble Viscount say about having a trade deficit with the People’s Republic of China of some £40 billion, when China is upgraded by the Government themselves as being a threat to the security interests of the United Kingdom, and about spending some £10 billion—the size of our entire overseas aid and development budget —on items associated with Covid, not least 1 billion lateral flow tests, bought from the People’s Republic of China? Is it not time that we increased our own manufacturing capacity to ensure that such items could be made in the United Kingdom by British workers? Surely we must see that the lack of resilience and too much dependency at a time like this, given what has happened with Ukraine and Russia, is not something that this country should follow.

[Viscount Younger of Leckie (Con)]

I always listen carefully to the noble Lord. He makes some good points. I start by saying that 61,000 jobs in this country are reliant on Chinese companies. However, human rights are a major issue; I hope that chimes with the remarks made on many occasions in this Chamber in providing evidence of the extent of China’s efforts to silence and repress the Uighurs and other minorities. It is important that we create a balance between continuing trade with China and the fact that we are not looking at forming an FTA with China at present.