‘Hong Kong is not out of the woods yet,’ despite signs of US-China trade war deal, says trade chief Edward Yau
- Trade war flattened Hong Kong’s GDP growth to 0.5 per cent, year on year, in the first three months of 2019 – the worst in a decade
- Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau says there is little confidence things can return to how they were, ‘as if nothing had happened’
The dark clouds over Hong Kong’s trade sector will not go away overnight, even if a breakthrough is imminent in the US-China trade war, the city’s commerce minister has warned.
Edward Yau Tang-wah, secretary for commerce and economic development, said there was little confidence in the industry that it could return to how things were before, “as if nothing had happened”.
US media reports indicated that Beijing and Washington could reach a deal to end the trade war, which has gone on for almost a year, as early as next week, setting the stage for a summit between the countries’ respective presidents, Xi Jinping and Donald Trump, to sign it.
The trade war, which worsened sharply in September, flattened Hong Kong’s GDP growth to 0.5 per cent, year on year, in the first three months of 2019 – the worst in a decade.
Hong Kong is not out of the woods yet. I won’t count on a deal that will bring in very smooth trade for Hong Kong
Yau urged Hong Kong’s business sector to exploit Xi’s global trade and commerce strategy, the Belt and Road Initiative, for future growth.
