Hong Kong can help mainland firms ‘break through’ US trade barriers: John Lee
City leader tells Ningbo forum that Hong Kong’s value to international investors and capital has increased under ‘US tariff hegemony’
Hong Kong will prepare to provide mainland Chinese companies with supply chain services, helping them to access emerging markets and “break through” US trade barriers, the city’s leader has said as he wrapped up a four-day visit to technology powerhouse Zhejiang province.
Separately, budget carrier HK Express announced it would launch two direct routes – to Yiwu in Zhejiang and Changzhou in Jiangsu province – next month to help with authorities’ efforts to forge closer ties with two regions.
Lee delivered his remarks in an opening speech at an investment and cooperation forum held in Ningbo, an industrial hub and port city in Zhejiang, amid an escalating trade war in which the US has imposed a 145 per cent tariff on most Chinese goods.
“A new economic and trade order is being reshaped,” Lee told the forum.
He said the “indiscriminate imposition of bullying tariffs” by the US and the rise of unilateralism had caused damage and risked tipping the global economy into recession.