Peter Wilson

Working with China on the Arms Trade Treaty

When it comes to the ATT, there are two really important groups of countries.  The first and most important is those countries that most suffer from the negative effects of the international unregulated trade in conventional weapons.  The second is the biggest sellers of arms.  As is often noted, there is a correlation between the biggest arms selling countries and the Permanent 5 of the UN Security Council. 
 
That is why we see a dialogue between P5 members at all levels, including between NGOs, as an important part of international efforts towards an ATT - efforts which received the support of 147 countries at the UN last year.  We believe that an effective ATT can not only make the world a safer place, but also be consistent with a commercially successful international defence trade. 
 
That is the conversation we are having with Chinese experts and it is a very interesting one.  Indeed, not only are we discussing the potential benefits to our respective defence trades, but also to our wider trade in the developing world, where stability and reducing the impact of conflict are key to mutual benefit.  Finally, addressing the unregulated trade in conventional arms should make our peacekeepers and nationals working overseas safer.

Posted at 13:08 07 October 2009 by Peter Wilson  |  Comments[1]

Lord Mandelson at the Party School in Beijing

Lord Mandelson has been in Beijing this week.  He met Premier Wen Jiabao this morning, and had talks with Vice Premier Wang Qishan on the global economy, and with Trade Minister Chen Deming on trade. 

His speech at the Central Party School is an important one - on the effects of the financial crisis, climate change, and EU/China relations.  The school is where China trains its leading officials - not just early in their careers, but at regular intervals afterwards, for shorter and longer courses.  So questions were lively.

We have also posted the Chinese version of the speech on our Embassy website.

Posted at 13:29 09 September 2009 by Peter Wilson  |  Comments[0]

New UKTI China trade website

UK Trade and Investment Director Alastair Morgan started his own China blog last month joined by the wider UKTI China team.  The Commercial Section of the Embassy and in our three consulates, UKTI in London and the China Britain Business Council, are all contributing.   You can find it in Chinese and English at blog.sina.com.cn/uktichina.  The UKTI English language site is at blog.ukti.gov.uk.

There are lots of good posts on it already, including daily posts from Trade Minister Lord (Mervyn) Davies during his recent visit to China.  The latest post, from Qin Li, is on information and communications technology.  In other posts, Jeremy Gordon has written on opportunities from China's stimulus package.  and Corin Wilson writes about doing inward investment in Wuhan, central China.

The trade and investment story is a good one.  We have a demanding target, to achieve US $60 billion in two way trade by 2010.  China invests more in the UK than in any other country in Europe, and we are Europe's largest investor in China, with 25% of all Chinese-recorded EU Foreign Direct Investment.   The EU as a whole is China's largest trading partner in the world.  I hope you will find time to click on the links.

Posted at 10:12 10 August 2009 by Peter Wilson  |  Comments[0]