Business secretary would not bring Chinese companies into UK steel sector Source: Sky News
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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 wouldn't.
01:31I think steel is a very sensitive area.