I met a bloke in Shenzhen once. He ran, as had his father before him, a plastics moulding company producing plastic bits for motor vehicles; bumper, grill surrounds etc. He had supplied, at a reasonable cost, components for British motor manufacturers for years but he was now going to go out of business.
The reason was that the new Eastern European companies springing up with EU subsidies could easily undercut him and under EU rules the manufacturers were not permitted to choose their supplier on a national basis.
So he had come to China with samples of his products to try and save his business. He had been directed to a Chinese company that produced the same items as he and they had done test mouldings of his products to perfection. So the deal was struck. They would produce the items that would arrive in the UK at a price cheaper than the Europeans could manage; his factory would then become a packing and distribution centre and 90% of his employees would keep a job.