Business secretary would not bring Chinese companies into UK steel sector

Business secretary would not bring Chinese companies into UK steel sector Source: Sky News

Transcript

00:00I wouldn't personally bring a Chinese company into our steel sector.

00:02Do you feel that you can ever trust a Chinese commercial partner

00:07for an enterprise like this, or for example on Sidewell Sea,

00:11or any other big piece of infrastructure again?

00:13Look, it's important we don't talk about this company

00:18as being representative of every company in China.

00:20But you've already said the context in which it operates

00:23means that it will behave in a particular way.

00:26China is not a market economy as we would be familiar with

00:30in our own country or Europe or the US.

00:32It's different.

00:33So it really comes down to which sectors you think, you know,

00:36there's no complications, there's no problems in.

00:39Some are more sensitive than others.

00:40A lot of UK Chinese trade is in non-contentious areas,

00:45you know, agricultural products, life sciences or automotive.

00:48It's not difficult.

00:49I think where as a country, we've got it wrong in the past.

00:53You had a phase, I think the sort of David Cameron,

00:56George Osborne phase initially was far too naive about some of this.

01:00You had a phase, to be frank, under the Conservative government

01:03just before they lost office, where they wouldn't engage at all

01:07and that was inappropriate.

01:08We're a real outlier.

01:09You know, there was no political engagement.

01:10The US has some very assertive measures in place to China,

01:13but they do have political engagement.

01:14So I think the balance was wrong.

01:16I think you've got to be clear about what is the sort of sector

01:19where, actually, we can, you know, promote and cooperate

01:23and ones, frankly, where we can't.

01:27I wouldn't personally bring a Chinese company into our steel sector.

01:30You would not bring a Chinese company?

01:31I wouldn't.

01:31I think steel is a very sensitive area.