Economy
18:12, 18-Dec-2018
UK firms still confident in Chinese market, despite trade tension: survey
Updated
18:12, 21-Dec-2018
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Although impacted by the U.S.-China trade tension, a number of British companies are still optimistic about conducting business in China, according to a survey released by the British Chamber of Commerce in China on Tuesday.
With 212 respondents representing approximately 3.8 billion U.S. dollars of revenue in China, the British business in China sentiment survey reveals British companies' thoughts towards China's current business environment, the impact of global affairs, and their 2019 outlook.
About 52.2 percent of the respondents believed that there are negative impacts of U.S.-China trade tensions on their business operations to a varying extent, the survey says. The highest impact were reported by the hospitality tourism and sport sector (82 percent), healthcare sector (70 percent) and manufacturing and logistics sector (68 percent).
The majority of the respondents (52.7 percent), however, said they have so far not experienced any material impact from the U.S.-China trade friction, while decreased demand (21.2 percent) and increased manufacturing costs (4.4 percent) accounted for some of the material impact.
If the U.S. increased tariffs from 10 to 25 percent on 250 billion U.S. dollars' worth of Chinese exports, only seven percent of the respondents would delay or cancel their proposed investments, with 58.6 percent of the companies sticking with the status quo, said the survey respondents.
Looking forward, around two-thirds of the respondents said they were still confident about the business environment in China for their sectors.
“The Chamber would encourage policymakers on both sides to continue to have efforts to ensure UK businesses flourish to the benefits of both the UK and the Chinese economy. We are now in this golden era, a lot of positivity around the UK-China relations. We look forward to strengthening business ties over the coming years," said Nicholas Holt, Chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce in China.