Will May get the deal she’s looking for?
Theresa May is set to visit China as she tries to obtain a new trade deal with the country.
The trip is the latest series of foreign visits with major trading powers as the UK ready’s itself to the leave the European Union.
The visit will also be a chance for May to strengthen the UK’s relations with China, which have been on the decline in recent months after George Osborne left the government.
The former chancellor had made increasing commercial ties with Beijing, insiders have said his absence has been sorely missed by Chinese officials.
Lord O’Neill, the former Treasury minister and Golden Sachs chief economist, was brought into the government by Osbourne to help build a relationship with China, he said the PM needs to make visiting China a priority, he also spoke of the fact that ministers need to come out of their comfort zone and seek new trading partners.
He told Sky News: “It is understandable, because of the past, for some of our policy thinkers to think: ‘Let’s find our most similar structured political allies out there in Australia, Canada and NZ.’
“(But) to really change our future trade performance we need to be giving the same kind of energy to more complex and newer places that are going to be more important, like China and India.”
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