INVESTMENT SPECIAL: Passports to China

One of the remarkable statistics to emerge from the euroland crisis is the scale of UK trade with the Irish Republic. Export traffic across the Irish Sea amounts to 7 per cent of the total: more than all our trade with the fast growing ‘BRIC’ economies — Brazil, Russia, India and China. The consequence is that UK plc looks to be missing out on the high-growth emerging markets which are forecast to power a 4.5 per cent expansion of the global economy in 2011.

The coalition has sought to plug this gap with high-profile trade missions such as last year’s excursion to China led by David Cameron. The reality is, however, that all the missions seem to have achieved so far is $2 billion of orders for Rolls-Royce engines to power the A380 Airbus. This may be satisfying in the light of Rolls’s recent mishap with a Trent engine in a Qantas plane over Singapore, but one suspects the orders would have come irrespective of ministerial efforts.