A Chinese Christmas

If your family is anything like the typical Czech family, you found a good number of Chinese-made products under the Christmas tree, especially if you got electronics or gadgets made largely of plastic. Imports from China during the first 10 months of 2002 jumped year-on-year by 83%, to $1.45bn, and were 15 times greater than Czech exports to China. Trade with China makes up about 5% of the CR's total foreign trade but accounted for 55% of the $2.5bn deficit as of Oct. 31. Martin Hála, a Sinologist, said in Lidové noviny earlier this year that most anyone can import anything from China, with few restrictions, whereas selling to China requires special licenses and having a local partner. Czech government officials have occasionally made an effort to increase exports to China, but with few results. The skyrocketing trade deficit lends a new urgency to this.