Boris Johnson is keen to restart trade talks
(Picture: AP)Boris Johnson is pushing to restart trade talks with China which has sparked fury from some MPs within the Tory party.
The Department for International Trade has begun to organise ministerial meetings with the state in a bid to restore economic ties with China.
According to one official, the Treasury is keen to restart talks and is nervous of the more hawkish approach taken by some Tory MPs.
British officials are now working towards holding a meeting of the UK-China joint economic and trade committee later this year, Politico reports.
Such meetings were held annually until 2018 when relations began to sour between the UK and China.
One Government official said: “The Treasury are keen to revive it for this year and are nervous about a more hawkish China policy.”
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has also requested the resumption of the UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue.
Following reports of the new economic dialogue, Iain Duncan Smith Chingford & Woodford Green said he will oppose any move to increase trade ties amid speculation over the treatment of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, threats to Taiwan and growing influence in the South Chian Sea.
He said: “If this government decides that they are going to kowtow to China by going over there and begging them to trade I have to tell you that they can think again.”
“I make no bones about this: I will not let it rest if we start now, amid all the evidence of genocide, brutality, crackdowns on peaceful protesters, and go traipsing along there as though nothing happened.
“There’s no good them telling us that they’re going to clean up their act — because they never do.”
Tom Tugendhat, the Tory chairman of the Commons foreign affairs committee, agreed, saying: “The timing of the decision to relaunch trade discussions with China is surprising.
“The UK needs to make up its mind whether it wants a stronger economic relationship with China or whether it wants a new China strategy which reflects the challenge of trade coercion and human rights abuses.”
China is a vital trade partner with the UK, with Government figures reporting trade in goods and services between the two was valued at £94.5billion over the last four quarters.
In the four quarters leading to the third quarter of 2021, China was the UK’s third-largest trading partner and accounted for 7.5 per cent of the overall total.
China is also the UK’s sixth and second largest exports and import market respectively.
The Department for International Trade has been approached for comment.
