As Starmer wraps up his Beijing love-in with Xi Jinping, the Department for Business and Trade is busy slapping anti-dumping measures on Chinese imports. Square that circle…
On the same day Starmer touched down in China, DBT quietly published a notice extending anti-dumping duties on wire rod products originating from China – extra tariffs on goods judged to be sold below “normal value”. In other words, goods that are too cheap and too damaging for British industry…
So while the Business department were back home were warning about unfair Chinese trade practices, Starmer was posing for photos in Beijing. And so far the most notable achievement of his trip was being gifted a Labubu doll for his kids…
Shadow national security minister Alicia Kearns told Times Radio she would have put a precondition on a China trip if she were PM:
“I would have put a precondition that I was not going to go if I was prime minister, unless Jimmy Lai was coming home with me. I would also put a precondition in the six months leading up to the visit that I wanted a reduction in hostile acts against our country. But that’s not what we saw. And actually, in contrast, what we saw was clearly the Chinese Communist Party did put a precondition, which was that the new embassy in London had to be signed off. So why is it okay for China to set preconditions and to make very clear red lines about what they require for a visit, but we go without having put any ourselves?”