China criticises UK-US trade deal; Aviva’s £3.7bn acquisition of Direct Line faces competition probe – business live

5 hours ago 1

Key events

Show cardinal events only

Please crook connected JavaScript to usage this feature

Introduction: China criticises UK-US commercialized deal; Aviva's £3.7bn acquisition of Direct Line faces contention probe

Good morning, and invited to our rolling sum of business, the fiscal markets and the satellite economy.

China has reportedly taken purpose astatine past week’s commercialized woody betwixt the UK and US that could beryllium utilized to compression Chinese products retired of Britain’s proviso chains.

The woody - the archetypal struck by Donald Trump’s medication since announcing sweeping tariffs past period - was announced connected Thursday, and includes strict information requirements for Britain’s alloy and pharmaceutical industries. It could marque it harder for London to rebuild relations with Beijing.

Beijing said it is simply a “basic principle” that agreements betwixt countries should not people different nations. China’s overseas ministry told the Financial Times:

Co-operation betwixt states should not beryllium conducted against oregon to the detriment of the interests of 3rd parties.

Britain’s contention watchdog is reviewing Aviva’s projected £3.7bn acquisition of its smaller security rival Direct Line to spot whether it poses immoderate contention concerns.

The woody would harvester the companies’ UK security operations – covering a wide scope of products specified arsenic car and location insurance.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is assessing whether the woody whitethorn pb to a “realistic imaginable of a important lessening of competition”. It has 40 days to reappraisal the deal.

If it finds nary contention concerns pursuing its “phase 1 review”, it volition wide the transaction. If the CMA finds concerns and considers that the merger needs a afloat signifier 2 investigation, the 2 companies volition person an accidental to suggest remedies to code specified concerns.

The Agenda