BIZCHINA / Center
US imposes trade sanctions on China paper
(Agencies/Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-05-31 10:12
The Bush administration is i
BIZCHINA / Overseas Investment
Indian alcohol firm joins Chinese market
By Chen Weihua (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-05-23 11:05
SHANGHAI: United Spirits Ltd (USL), the world's third-largest alcohol
beverage company, has joined a host of international rivals in the
Chinese market.
The Indian company formally announced its march into China over the
weekend at SIAL China 2007, an international food and beverage fair held
in Shanghai.
Vijay Mallya, chairman of both USL and its parent company United
Breweries (Holding) Ltd, said the company has made the Chinese market a
top priority.
"We will offer a complete range of alcohols of different flavors," said
Mallya, a prominent business leader in India and a member of the Indian
Parliament.
Initially, USL plans to launch five alcohol brands in China, including
the Bagpiper Deluxe Whisky, the world's best-selling whisky. USL markets
more than 140 alcohol brands, among them 15 are so-called millionaire
brands - those with annual sales above 1 million cases.
Mallya is optimistic about the Chinese market.
"I believe the taste of Chinese people and Indian people are very
similar. Our products will be enjoyed, especially the first five products
we are going to launch," he said.
"We are looking forward to the start of a very successful business in
China. We will start in Shanghai and then extend to other parts of the
country," said Mallya, who is also an avid aviator, yachtsman and lover
of Chinese food.
USL also plans to bottle locally here in China. "I don't think any other
international companies have offered to bottle their products locally,"
he said.
"When you go to a market as important as China, you have to prepare to do
whatever it takes... and USL is in China for the long-term," the
51-year-old said.
Mallya said major manufacturers in the spirits business are stocking
their products because they expect high demand from China and India.
A relatively late starter in the Chinese market, Mallya said in business,
it's never too late.
He gave the example of Kingfisher Airlines, which he owns. Kingfisher
started it's aggressive expansion just two years ago and has already
increased its market share in India to 9.8 percent and has ordered dozens
of aircraft to enable growth and expansion.
(China Daily 05/23/2007 page14)
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mposing further trade sanctions against
China, South Korea and Indonesia in a dispute involving glossy paper.
The US Commerce Department said in a statement that it has preliminarily
determined that imports from the three countries of glossy paper -- used
in art books, textbooks and high-end magazines -- were being sold in the
United States at less than fair value.
The preliminary penalty for the paper products from China ranged from
23.19 percent to 99.65 percent. The penalty imposed on imports of glossy
paper from Indonesia was 10.85 percent while the penalty on South Korean
imports ranged as high as 30.86 percent.
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The penalties will be collected immediately although they will not become
final until this fall after further investigations are conducted.
"This administration continues to aggressively and transparently enforce
our trade laws to ensure a level playing field for American
manufacturers, workers and farmers," said Commerce Secretary Carlos M.
Gutierrez.
The decision came a week after US and Chinese officials met for a second
round of high-level talks aimed at lowering trade tensions between the
two nations.
The paper case was brought by NewPage Corp., a Dayton, Ohio-based paper
company which contended that its coated paper was facing unfair
competition because of the subsidies and sale of imports at unfairly low
prices.
The trade sanctions have received the support of the United Steel Workers
union, which represents about 90 percent of the workforce in the US
coated paper industry. The glossy paper is produced at 22 paper mills in
13 states.
These penalties will be imposed on top of economic sanctions levied in
March after the US administration alleged that paper companies from those
three countries were receiving improper government subsidies that allowed
them to undercut the price of American producers.
The March decision reversed 23 years of US trade policy by treating China
in the same way other US trading partners are treated in disputes
involving government subsidies.
Chinese officials denounced the decision in the government subsidies case
saying that it went against the consensus of both countries to resolve
disputes through dialogue rather than imposing trade sanctions.
The second round of the Strategic Economic Dialogue, which was launched
by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in December, was held in Washington
last week.
Paulson and Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi announced a series of agreements
including the boosting of airline flights between the two nations. But
they failed to make progress in one of the biggest rade irritants, the
value of China's currency. The Bush administration urged China to quicken
the pace of yuan revaluation, while China emphasized that yuan should be
kept "basically stable at a reasonable, balanced level."
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