The view from China

The role of private enterprise

The regulatory crackdown continues apace and whilst China’s Economic Tsar Liu He has assured private enterprise they are essential to China’s growth and economic stability, the meltdown of real estate giant Evergrande suggests otherwise.

There has also been a great deal of focus and attention paid to the latest ‘common prosperity’ campaign and foreign companies, in addition to their domestic counterparts, are grappling with how they might reduce risk and improve their ‘CP’ credentials.

Highlighting a company’s ESG (Environmental, Societal and Governance) criteria and working closely with local partners to achieve this goal would seem a sensible first step.

Chinese relations with the outside world

A much overdue call between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping last week was welcome but has not yet led to any substantive dates for face-to-face meetings. At least China’s ‘Wolf Warrior’ diplomatic corps has been uncharacteristically quiet most recently as both superpowers position themselves for potential bilateral engagement.

Meanwhile the US, UK and Australia (AUKUS) have announced a new security partnership to sustain peace and stability across the Indo-Pacific region.

This is an additional alliance complementing the Quad countries of the US, Japan, India and Australia respectively. It also marks a tangible milestone for the UK as it pursues its ‘global Britain’ international trade tilt to the Indo-Pacific.

Later this month the European Chamber of Commerce (EUCCC) will publish its annual position paper looking at the broader Chinese business environment for European business and highlighting key market access barriers.

The annual Report is a hefty-sized tome but this year will be only available online or in pdf format – a sure sign of the net zero times that we find ourselves in, particularly as we count down to COP26 in November.

Sharing net zero best practice

The CBI China team has been busy working with its UK and international counterparts to highlight opportunities for British and global CBI members to share net zero best practice and sign up to Goal 13 initiatives.

The CBI Decarbonisation team and CBI Beijing recently led a webinar detailing their climate change work to the newly formed Taiwan Climate Partnership, a grouping of Taiwan’s leading high-tech companies.

The event was coordinated by the British Office Taipei and a great example of government, policymakers and business coming together to discuss global climate issues and suggest practical policy solutions.

The CBI also joined COP President Alok Sharma’s virtual call with British business in China last week. In addition to highlighting the opportunities and challenges for UK business in market we also discussed the importance of utilising business back channels via organisations such as the CBI, CBBC and Chambers of Commerce.

The continuing impact of COVID-19

There has been little, unfortunately, to report on the resumption of direct flights between the UK and China. Clearly any movement on this critical issue will be of huge benefit to UK businesses, dependants, international students and, more broadly, help in improving bilateral relations.

Occasional outbreaks of the Delta variant in China have meant that China’s closed border, long quarantine, ‘zero tolerance’ anti-COVID-19 policy remains in place and is unlikely to be lifted even after the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Singapore however, has been allowing quarantine-free travel from Germany and Brunei whilst the Keidanren (Japan’s equivalent of the CBI) has been increasingly vocal about the need to stimulate quarantine-free international business and tourist travel to Japan.

The CBI China team continues to be active across these issues as well as the ASEAN region promoting and attending webinars, events and sharing the latest business intelligence insights.

The view from India

Increasing momentum on the UK-India FTA negotiations

Liz Truss and India’s Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal connected this month to agree the next steps towards a free trade agreement; and while Truss has since been promoted to Foreign Secretary, no doubt new UK Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan will build on the UK-India momentum.

According to Indian sources, the UK and India are aiming to launch the FTA negotiations by November 2021, with a possible early harvest deal being scheduled for as soon as March 2022.

Given the pace of progress it is important that business is best positioned to inform negotiating positions, and that a trade deal that delivers for industry is agreed upon. This summer the CBI ran an extensive consultation exercise to put together cross industry asks for the FTA. CBI’s business recommendations to the DIT included suggestions on UK’s negotiation approach and key asks on tariffs, standards and regulations, climate, mobility, data and procurement.

Further, the CBI also held an industry-led roundtable on 16 September with the CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) annual CEO delegation along with the two High Commissioners – Indian High Commissioner to the UK, H.E. Gaitri Issar Kumar and British High Commissioner to India, H.E. Alex Ellis. The session covered a diverse range of topics; from regulating future sectors together to exploring industry and academia led collaborations on green energy and environmental initiatives in the lead up to COP26.

Over the coming weeks, we will be proactively engaging with government to push forward the top priorities of our members for the FTA as outlined in our consultation response and will be continuing discussions with CII at the fringes of COP26.

The view from the USA

Supporting the COP26 agenda

The CBI in Washington continues to support the organisation’s wider COP26 agenda by engaging with sister business federations in Canada and the United States and communicating the opportunities at hand to government officials in both countries.

Given that the future of the UK’s trade in North America will be defined by strong, climate-centric agreements, this will remain a major component for the CBI’s work across the Atlantic moving forward.

Further engagement with individual state governments continues to be a priority as well – and is yielding fruit. Senior political and business leaders from the city of Jacksonville, Florida are visiting the CBI on 11 October for a roundtable on fintech innovation and opportunities for collaboration.

CBI Washington have also begun bespoke consultations with regulators in the Colorado state government to ease barriers to licensing and entry for skilled services professionals – particularly architecture and engineering.