Market Information

Unicon’s first wine shipment arrived in Beijing last week and the sales team are busy presenting the wines to our retail and Hotel network.

Wineries currently represented by Unicon in Beijing are:

Morton Estate
Astrolabe
Wine Growers of Ara
Paddy Borthwick
Distant Land
Coopers Creek

 www.unicon.co.nz

New Zealand exporters are facing a challenging year as global economic conditions deteriorate, says credit reporting agency Dun & Bradstreet (D&B).The impact of global inflationary pressures, declining US consumer demand and the re-pricing of credit were eroding business profit margins and making it more difficult to sell products to key trading nations.

Smaller organisations - which made up the majority of the New Zealand exporting community - were most likely to feel the pressure of deteriorating economic conditions as they were less able to withstand economic headwinds than their larger counterparts, D&B said.

D&B data indicated that more than 80 per cent of this country’s exporters sold less than $10 million worth of goods and services a year and the vast majority employed a small number of staff.

Via: NZ Herald: Challenging year for NZ exporters - Dun & Bradstreet

Getting goods and people into Beijing from now until the end of the Olympics is going to get more and more difficult as security tightens. I Had the most strengent security checks on my way into Beijing last week, they almost didn’t let me in because they thought I looked different to my passport picture!

We also we have a shipment that has been “held up” due to the extra security checks so expect delays in getting things in and out of Beijing!

Joe

Photo from: NZ Herald.

BEIJING - Guards with machine guns began patrolling the Beijing airport as the city tightens security for the Olympics, news reports said Saturday.

Also this weekend, police will start checking Beijing subway passengers for guns and explosives, the reports said.

The measures reflect the fears of Chinese leaders, who worry the Olympics might be tarnished by security threats. They also hope to stop activists who want to use the August games to air grievances against the communist government.

At the airport, two-member teams of guards with machine guns began work Thursday and will patrol all three terminals through the end of the Olympics, the Xinhua News Agency and newspapers reported. Chinese police usually are unarmed, while some airport guards carry pistols.

“I think they look cool, and you rarely get to see such big guns,” the China Daily newspaper quoted a female traveler at the airport as saying.

On subways, police with dogs will start checking passengers for guns, knives, explosives and flammable, poisonous or radioactive material on Sunday, Xinhua said.

Story via: NZ Herald    Security tightens in Beijing for the Olympics

Details on tariff cut programme in trade deal with China.

The deal eliminates tariffs on 96 percent of New Zealand’s current exports to China by 2019.

For other than specified “sensitive” goods - kiwifruit, some meat, sheepskins and dairy products - the following programme will apply:

* When the deal comes into force - probably October 1 - 35 percent of imports from New Zealand which currently face tariffs of up to 5 percent will be duty free;

* Duties in the 6 to 20 percent range will be phased out over five years until 2012; and

* Tariffs greater than 20 percent will be reduced to 20 percent on day one and then phased out by 2013.

Dairy

* Some dairy products - infant milk formula, casein, yoghurt and whey - will be phased out over 5 years;

* China’s tariffs on butter, liquid milk and cheese will be phased out over the 10 years to 2017;

* Skim and whole milk powder will be removed over 12 years; and

* There are mechanisms to delay the tariff reductions if exports exceed certain quantities.

Meat

* Tariffs on beef and sheep meat, and edible offal will be removed over 9 years.

Fruit

* Apple tariffs will be removed by 2012 and kiwifruit over 9 years.

Wool

* A duty free quota of 25,000 tonnes of wool and 450 tonnes of wool tops will be set increasing by 5 percent a year for 8 years. The initial quota is 75 percent of current exports or $122 million a year in tariffs.

Wood and paper products

* China will be bound on the zero tariff on logs and sawn timber and a limited number of pine products will also be given preferential status.

* Some processed wood and paper products accounting for 4 percent of New Zealand’s exports to China will not be covered by the trade deal. This is because under WTO rules is China gives preferential status on the products, they must be applied to all WTO members.

What China Gets from New Zealand.

* All tariffs will be removed by 2016;

* Currently 37 percent of China’s exports to New Zealand are tariff free;

* An additional 2 percent of exports with a tariff of five percent or less will be duty free from October 1;

* Tariffs on most textile, apparel, footwear and carpet products will be phased to zero over seven years or nine years. Tariffs on heavily exported goods in clothing and footwear will be phased out by 2016, lesser traded goods by 2014; and

* Tariffs on all other goods (including steel, whiteware, plastics and furniture) will be mostly phased out by 2012 with the remainder by 2013.

* Ian Llewellyn is in Beijing with the assistance of the Asia New Zealand Foundation.

via:  Details on tariff cuts in China trade deal

3:30PM Monday April 07, 2008

New Zealanders rank products imported from China below other imports but have noticed that Chinese imports are fast improving, according to a Massey University consumer survey.

Marketing researchers in the University’s College of Business surveyed Aucklanders on their attitudes towards imports from Australia, China, German, Japan and the United States. Japanese goods got the top rating for product performance.

The research team, led by senior marketing lecturer Dr Gurvinder Shergill (pictured), set out to investigate consumer attitudes towards products and marketing practices of different countries in order to shed more light on how consumers perceive imported products – depending on their country of origin. The study found the three common factors on which consumers evaluate imported products were quality, design and whether they were improving.

Dr Shergill says there has been little research on New Zealanders’ attitudes to imported products. The researchers also wanted to compare the attitudes of consumers towards the way products from the five countries were marketed.

Source: Massey news - Press releases Chinese imports rank low but consumer perceptions improving