TAIPEI: The new U.K. ambassador to Taiwan said that her country’s decision to leave European Union (EU) would allow it negotiate trade pacts with partners beyond Europe and become a global power.
The British Office in Taipei’s new representative Catherine Nettleton quoted U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May’s speech from last week to emphasize that leaving the EU was not a decision to turn inward.
“Quite the opposite: it was a decision to become even more of global power with the freedom and desire to negotiate trade agreements beyond Europe,” she said during her first press event with local media in Taipei.
The British Office represents U.K. interests in Taiwan in the absence of official diplomatic ties.
Nettleton sought to underline that Britain’s economy was still strong despite the pessimistic predictions about the impact of Brexit, the tumbling pound and the U.K. slipping behind France to become the world’s sixth-largest economy.
“Ours was the fastest growing G-7 economy in 2015 and, we are predicted to be the fastest growing G-7 economy in 2016 as well,” she said.
The U.K. was planning to take further steps to continue beefing up its productivity and competitiveness by further steps to cut corporation tax to 17 percent by 2020, the lowest rate in the G-20, she added.
Commenting on future relations with Taiwan, Nettleton, who took up her post in December, said the U.K. would continue to promote growth in bilateral trade with Taiwan.
