Final Word from Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Moravian winemakers who complain about cheap European imports ain't seen nothing yet. The Chinese are in the process of doing to winemaking what they've done to many other industries - producing high-quality products at killer prices. In the U.S., the Senate voted to allow consideration of a bill for imposing a 27.5% import tariff on all Chinese imports if Beijing doesn't revalue its currency. The CR is also losing the trade battle with China, but hardly anyone has noticed. Analyst Miroslav Brabec of Raiffeisenbank, one of the few who has, pointed out that whereas the CR's overall 12-month trade deficit fell sharply in Feb. to Kč 18.3bn, the deficit with China grew by 10%, to Kč 80.8bn. The CR's mutual trade with China is still low, at only 2.2% of the total, but the trend is clear: If nothing is done, we'll all soon be drinking Dragon Seal Riesling. [Czech Republic United States of America China trade balance]