British politician calls for clear Brexit position to boost China investment

Britain urgently needs “stability” to allure more Chinese investment, said First Minister of Wales Carwyn Jones, at an event in London marking the two-year anniversary since the UK voted to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum.

Speaking to China Daily at an event organized by the UK in a Changing Europe think tank, Jones said: “Stability is everything and this seems particularly important in the Chinese culture.

“At the moment, the stability is not there in a way that people in China would want to see and believe,” the first minister said, “that is due to the UK government outlining a robust way forward and I don’t think we are in that position yet”.

Jones said that by October, there will be a clear idea of what the nature of the UK’s relationship will be with EU. “That’s the way to provide a kind of certainty and stability that investors in China and other countries would look for,” he added.

The first minister emphasized the importance of the UK strengthening its links with China, but he admitted that a fair and free trade agreement would take a long time to finalize.

“It doesn’t happen overnight,” he said, “The Trans-Pacific Partnership (known as TPP) took many years though it never materialized.”

Jones suggested that if the UK cannot get a relationship right with its closest market, which the country has had the alignment with for 50 years, it would be very difficult to quickly reach an agreement with other markets that might have substantial differences which need to be resolved.

The first minister set out a case for the UK government to use in its upcoming white paper on direction change, and how to put the national interest first, calling for a change of substance and tone to secure a positive partnership with the EU.

The publication of the white paper in the next few weeks will set out the government’s thinking on the future partnership between London and Brussels.

Speaking at King’s College London, Jones called on the UK government to “use this last opportunity to come clean on Brexit, to erase the wobbly red lines and to get the country into a proper Brexit ready position”.

He said: “it may be possible, despite the EU’s rhetoric about cherry picking, to agree that single market alignment will not extend fully to some service sectors, provided we pay a price for that in terms of market access”.

Jones argues that for goods, including manufacturing, agriculture and fisheries, it is probably a price worth paying to both safeguard the UK’s economy, while respecting the result of the referendum.

The first minister said, when he visited Norway eighteen months ago, he found it striking that most businesses there he spoke to were happy with the status quo.

“They felt they had the possibility to shape emerging regulations in the sectors they cared about by using their technical knowledge and expertise in working groups which they had access to by virtue of Norway’s European Economic Area (known as EEA) membership,” he said. “Single market participation gave them huge economic benefits which could never be replicated outside, but they admitted that Norwegian politicians would have more influence if Norway had joined the EU.”

Jones said: “If a price is to be paid for our decision to leave the EU – and there surely is – then is it best paid by a reduction in our political influence, or by the loss of investment, jobs, and livelihoods.

“If Norway can strike a deal like this, in the interests of its people, and not its politicians, then what is stopping us?” he added.