Xing Houyuan, a director of the state-backed Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, has said that China is open to launching trade negotiations with the UK and that it was being frustrated by the EU in its current trade negotiations. According to a report in the China Daily, “the situation in Western Europe will push China and the UK to make a trade treaty”. With the EU-US trade deal stalled and moves in the US to put the UK at the front of the queue, the post-Brexit situation is looking very different to how the experts predicted…

Britain’s embassies overseas now have some work to do. Getting trade deals done over the next two years…