'Good progress' on whisky after Starmer meets Xi
As reported by the BBC, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said that him and Chinese President Xi Jinping have made “really good progress on tariffs for whisky” after a meeting in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
Demand in China for whisky has been growing rapidly in recent years – in 2022, exports of whisky to China were valued at $2.3bn.
However, last year, as Chinese tariffs on whisky imports doubled from 5% to 10%, shipments of Scotch to China fell by 31%.
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Starmer said: “We've agreed that on tariffs for whisky, we're looking at how they're to be reduced, what the timeframe is.”
He added that he wanted to make Britain “face outwards again… because as we all know, events abroad affect everything that happens back in our home countries, from prices on the supermarket shelves to how secure we feel.”
The government wants closer ties with Beijing to help boost economic growth at home, although critics have urged caution over national security risks and the country’s human rights record.
Xi, for his part, said that the UK-China relationship had had “some twists and turns that did not serve the interests of our countries” and suggested that dialogue between the two countries was “imperative”.
The Prime Minister’s trip was the first visit to China by a UK leader since 2018.
Starmer and Chinese Premier Li Qiang will both attend a signing ceremony on Thursday morning UK time, to sign memorandums of understanding covering cooperation in a number of areas.
Both sides also made progress on visas – British citizens can now travel to the country for up to 30 days without a visa, along with exploring a services agreement and cooperation on illegal migration.
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