Austria and China have signed a new trade agreement which should give Austrian retailers easier access to the Chinese ecommerce market. The idea is to open up China’s huge market of shoppers to Austrian merchants selling western goods.
The Austrian trade minister, on her visit to Beijing, said of the deal:
We are talking about a market with millions of potential products. For example, the JD.com online platform has around 266 million registered customers, and in Germany, hardly anyone knows this company. This is an opportunity for Austrian companies to score points with quality and innovation ‘made in Austria’. At the same time, we also want to put the location more in the focus of our Chinese partners, and specifically promote corporate relocations to our country. You can tell from the talks that Austria and its products are well received here and because of our central location we can actively position ourselves as a bridge between East and West”
– Margarete Schramböck, Federal Minister for Digital and Economic Affairs
From a UK point of view, it is fascinating to learn about an EU member state which is doing deals outside of the bloc with a major world power. Many Brexit critics argue that the UK could benefit from similar arrangements. Especially after Bexit.
It has been said that the UK won’t be allowed to make trade agreements outside of the purview of the EU until after 2020 but such arrangements show that there is room for trade deals that could benefit UK merchants sooner.
