What is the reason for the boycott of goods from China
Recently, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson instructed the government to develop a special program that will allow the country to reduce dependence on Chinese imports. In fact, this can be seen as a kind of boycott of goods from China, which have a lower price than local or other European countries.
The program, which is called Project Defend, covers products of strategic importance. In the process of developing this project, experts will assess the stability of the British economy, identify its weaknesses that can be used by other countries for hostile purposes. In addition, the officials aim to explore the possibilities of local production in order to resume the production of strategically important goods and not to depend on imports. Special measures will be developed separately to develop and support this area.
According to the expert, dependence on products from other countries is a big problem, especially with regard to national security. Now China supplies about 70 types of goods to the kingdom, which belong to the category of important, among which there are also medical products. More than 70% of components for drugs that are available in the country are made in China. Therefore, one of the government’s priorities is to diversify import supplies.
After its exit from the European Union, the UK is actively reforming economic and production processes, and so far no serious problems have been observed. However, progress in the unfinished negotiations with the European Union is being hampered. So far, the parties have not been able to reach consensus on trade issues, fisheries, passenger traffic between the countries. As a result, the pound rate is declining, which does not benefit the kingdom.
The UK is not the first that wants to reduce the amount of Chinese production in the country. Earlier, a boycott of these goods was announced in the US. According to polls, here about 40% refuse to buy goods made in China. Such actions resulted from the conflict between Washington and Beijing, which has been going on since 2017. At that time, mutual duties were introduced on various categories of products. At the beginning of this year, the parties reached certain agreements, thanks to which they concluded the first stage of the trade deal. According to its points, within 2 years China should purchase goods and services from the U.S. for a total amount of $200 billion. However, the conflict worsened when Donald Trump accused Beijing of providing inaccurate information about coronavirus and the number of people suffering from diseases.
It is hard to say how much the countries will reduce the supply from China and how it will affect the economy of the country. Obviously, the states will not be able to give up cheap products completely, as local production will cost much more.
