Counselor with the rank of minister of the Economic and Commercial Counsellor’s Office of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Zhou Xiaoming stated recently that China-UK economic and trade exchanges has a long history. Over half a century, bilateral trade volume has increased more than 100 times. Sino-UK trade has shown a momentum of rapid growth by smoothing away the impact of the global economic crisis this year.

Zhou said under the background of the full strategic partnership of the two countries, bilateral economic and trade development is possessed of remarkable achievements. At present, the UK is China’s third largest trade partner in the EU, second to Germany and the Netherlands and China is the UK’s second largest trade partner outside EU, second to the US.

Zhou stated that the new government of the UK attaches great importance to the economic and trade cooperation with China, claiming “to develop closer relations with China” with high levels of the two countries maintaining a good momentum in exchanges. This year’s cooperation mechanisms including Sino-UK financial dialogue and bilateral economic and trade joint commission will be held as scheduled. The future Sino-UK economic and trade cooperation will mount a higher level and gain greater development.