New partnership to encourage Chinese trade
Liverpool-headquartered accountancy firm Mitchell Charlesworth has signed a partnership agreement with Anglo-Chinese law firm Christine Lee & Co in a move to encourage bi-lateral trade between UK and Chinese small to medium-sized companies.
The agreement comes as the British Chambers of Commerce has revealed that more than two-thirds of companies are failing to export their goods abroad.
Mitchell Charlesworth said the partnership has been launched as a result of the number of North West businesses that trying to break into the Chinese market, but don’t know where to start.
“The partnership will offer in depth understanding of law, finance and culture in both the UK and China,” said partner Paul Wainwright.
“We believe this is the first partnership of its kind specialising in bi-lateral trade advice to SMEs here and in China.
“With our background as an SME specialist with expertise in tax, deal structures and due diligence we know we have a huge amount to offer together with Christine Lee & Co’s knowledge of Chinese law and business contacts.”
Christine Lee & Co is the chief legal adviser to the Chinese Embassy in London and is the only UK-Chinese firm authorised by the Chinese Ministry of Justice to practise as a foreign law firm in China.
Chrisine Lee, a director of Christine Lee & Co, said that there was strong interest among Chinese companies to do business in the UK.
“The type of business they want to do includes joint ventures, research and development and mergers and acquisitions, she said. “The stumbling block, however, is that many simply do not know how to do it and how to make contact with UK firms.
“It is critical to point out that Chinese SMEs see the North West as a hugely attractive investment region because London is seen to be swamped with competition.”
Wainwright added: “With the prime minister wanting to increase bi-lateral trade with China to £60bn a year by 2015 we know this is a terrific market. We want the North West to be right at the forefront of those opportunities.”
Mitchell Charlesworth has five offices in the North West – in Liverpool, Manchester, Chester, Warrington and Widnes – while Christine Lee & Co has two UK offices and sites in China and Hong Kong.
The agreement follows a British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) survey that showed 5,500 companies out of 8,000 do not export anything – partly because they think their products are unsuitable or they have enough business in the UK.
One in ten also said they lack the resources to export goods or would need help finding overseas customers. Another 15 per cent said they faced difficulties accessing finance and insurance for the export trade and would welcome more government support.
David Frost, director general of the BCC, added: “Too many of our companies lack an exporting culture, even though they produce high-quality goods and services. We cannot rebalance Britain's economy when so many companies say they're simply not ready or able to take their products overseas.”
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