二戰后期,在美國啟動商約準備工作的同時,英國亦開啟了商約籌議,但英國的準備工作整體上比較消極,曾寄望于先由中方提出草案,然后在中方的基礎上加以修改。隨著美方的加速推進,英方亦改變了策略,開始準備商約草案。英方所準備的商約草案只涉及居留及航海事項,不包含經商條款。與中美商約相比,英方希望獲得國民待遇而非最惠國待遇,以期得到遠超中美商約的特殊優惠。至1946年底,在英方草案的基礎上,中方提出了對案。隨著解放戰爭的全面爆發,英方認為中國的國內環境不利于商約的執行,與其訂立一個不能令人滿意的條約,不如不訂,中英商約最終未能簽訂。

In the late stage of World War Ⅱ, the British government joined the ranks of the U. S. government to initiatecommercial treaty talks with China. Nevertheless, the British government was largely lukewarm about the talk at first. Itonce hoped that the Chinese side would first propose a draft treaty, based on which the British side could make furtherimprovement. With the U. S. government stepped up its commercial treaty talk with China, however, the British changedcourse and proactively prepared a draft treaty. The draft commercial treaty proposed by the British side only covered issuesrelated to residence and navigation, excluding business-related terms. Different from the terms of the Sino-U. S.Commercial Treaty, the British side hoped to get national treatment rather than the most-favored-nation treatment, a stancethat would enable the British to get more benefits than that were allowed under the Sino-U. S. Commercial Treaty. TheChinese side proposed adjustments of the draft treaty at the end of 1946. With the all-out outbreak of the Chinese CivilWar, the British side argued that the Chinese domestic situation would impede the implementation of the commercial treaty.It would rather jettison the commercial treaty than sign an unsatisfactory treaty. The Sino-U. K. Commercial Treaty wasultimately aborted.