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The China-Britain Business Council’s core remit is to be a strong and effective advocate for equitable and sustainable UK-China economic engagement, supporting our members and the wider business community with accessible, fact-based information and analysis.
CBBC’s Public Affairs team produce regular up-to-date, evidence-based papers, reports and newsletters.
If you want factual, timely and practical analysis and information, contact:
The UK’s policy towards China rightly sits at the forefront of our national debate for a variety of reasons. We at CBBC offer information about the UK-China economic and commercial relationship, which is updated regularly, and is used both as a resource for our Members and the wider public, and in the interest of stimulating discussion based on hard evidence and up-to-date information.
China is the UK’s 3rd largest goods trading partner, after the U.S. and Germany. It was the 6th largest buyer of British goods exports in 2020, and our 2nd largest source of imports.
The UK exported £17.6 billion worth of goods and £5.1 billion worth of services direct to China in 2020, a rise of 32% since 2015.
Our economic relationship with China supports between 114,000 and 129,000 full-time equivalent jobs in the UK, according to research from Cambridge Econometrics (CE) .
Trade in goods and services accounts for the bulk of those jobs, thanks to the tremendous success of British exporters selling into China’s vast market in recent years.
These exports originate from all over the UK, with 16% from the North of England and 26% from Scotland, as against 18% from London and the South East.
