00:00 Gillian Fisher, Chair of the British Chamber of Commerce in China, attended the summit
00:05 in Beijing today and I asked him what the main takeaways from the gathering were.
00:09 I mean it really was a phenomenal event in terms of the turnout and the people who were
00:15 there. I think my personal takeaway was really, I was struck by the speech from Dilma Rousseff,
00:22 the former President of Brazil. You know, just talking about Brazil and the development
00:28 of Brazil, but also the BRICS and those kind of wider trading bodies, the Global South.
00:32 And I think throughout the whole event you saw people referencing the BRI, RCEP in Asia,
00:38 all of these different trading blocks and different groupings. And I think that's really,
00:42 really important to be in a room surrounded by those different perspectives to understand
00:46 that global trade is not just North America, it's not just Europe. There is huge amounts
00:52 of people and wealth and development happening all over. And I think China is really at the
00:57 centre of that right now.
00:58 However, what we're seeing at the moment is China and the USA somewhat at odds. The USA
01:04 threatening to impose tariffs concerned about China's supply of EVs. To what extent does
01:13 that sort of geopolitical tension, if you will, impact on countries like Britain?
01:19 I mean, we do a sentiment survey every November and, you know, this year in our sentiment
01:26 survey, the three biggest challenges for British business in China were the domestic economy
01:31 in China, the global economy and geopolitics. So you can see there that, you know, it really,
01:37 really has an enormous impact. And that geopolitics, you know, is often to do with the US-China
01:41 relationship. So I think it really does impact things. And I think one of the reasons these
01:46 kind of meetings are quite important is just for all of us to get into a space and to talk
01:50 quite openly and to understand that there is going to need to be discussion, there's
01:54 going to need to be compromise. There's always going to be situations that are not going
01:58 to work only in one country's favour. So I do think dialogue is the only way forward.
02:03 You know, I explained that, you know, over 250 years ago, the British thinker Adam Smith
02:07 wrote The Wealth of Nations, explaining that, you know, we can't be protectionist, we can't
02:12 operate in a mercantile way, that if we really want kind of global prosperity, we all need
02:16 to trade fairly and openly with one another. So I think that was one of the key messages.
02:21 And where does it go from here? I was reading about this San Francisco vision, which is
02:26 to bring together Chinese and US entrepreneurs, which sounds like a great idea. Are there
02:32 all sorts of initiatives like that underway to build that relationship between people
02:37 doing great business in various countries?
02:39 Whether it's the British Chamber or the EU Chamber or the Mexican Chamber, I think one
02:43 of the things that we're all asking for is more governmental engagement. You know, it's
02:46 great that Xi Jinping just visited Europe, but we also want to see world leaders coming
02:51 to China as well, because I think, you know, Covid was a real rupture and it was a real
02:56 challenge because for about three years, you didn't have a lot of travel in and out of
03:00 China. And I think you can see now that the government here is desperately trying to kind
03:03 of encourage people to visit, whether that's at a student level, whether that's at a tourist
03:07 level, you know, having visa-free travel with a lot of countries or government to government
03:11 as well. So, yeah, more engagement, the better.
03:14 For Britain post Brexit, are things easier or harder at a summit like this?
03:22 It's an interesting question. I mean, I think particularly today was quite interesting because
03:25 when it comes to supply chains, the UK has probably quite a different view to a lot of
03:29 countries and a different set of specialities. You know, I mentioned when I was on the panel,
03:33 80 percent of the British economy is services and you can't have supply chains without insurance
03:39 companies, you know, large consulting companies, risk assessment, all of those kind of areas
03:44 that the UK is specialised in. So I would say that actually what we offer is quite complementary
03:49 with what China is trying to do. You know, China is clearly the manufacturing hub of
03:54 the world, but the UK is also a powerhouse in services. And I think one thing we're seeing
03:57 with our member companies now, which I think is a real positive, is that as China and Chinese
04:02 companies want to go more global, they're often leaning into the expertise of British
04:06 service and business service companies to do so. So I think that's a real positive.
