New UK Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt met with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing today. After the meeting, Hunt said China made an offer to “to open discussions about a possible free trade deal done between Britain and China post Brexit”. And he added that “that’s something that we welcome and we said that we will explore.” Wang didn’t mention the free trade talks directly. But he said both countries had “agreed to proactively join up each others’ development strategies, and expand the scale of trade and mutual investment”.
Separately, Wang said that “the responsibility for the trade imbalance between China and the United States lies not with China.” And he cited the global role of the US Dollar, low saving rates, high level of consumption and US restrictions on high tech exports as some of the reasons for the imbalances. He also reiterated the stance that “China does not want to fight a trade war, but in the face of this aggressive attitude from the United States and violation of rights, we cannot but and must take countermeasures.”
