UK offers to work with allies to combat China

Britain will offer to work with the European Union, Japan and America to clamp down on  unfair behaviour by Chinese state-owned enterprises, its trade minister Liz Truss will tell the World Economic Forum on Friday. Truss, who is in charge of building new trade links around the world following Britain's exit from the European Union, will look to build consensus among trade ministers at the meeting that "cheats and bad actors" on free trade must be dealt with.Britain is expected to submit a formal application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership - a trading bloc of 11 nations around the Pacific rim including Japan, Canada and Australia.

Relations between Britain and China have cooled in recent years, from heavily courting Chinese investment in British infrastructure in 2015 to banning the telecoms firm Huawei from parts of its communications network and tightening rules on foreign investment over national security concerns.Having quit the EU's political and economic union and negotiated only a limited free trade agreement in its place, Britain is looking around the world for new markets and to carve out a role for itself as a leading advocate of free trade.