A decade ago, basketball legend Yao Ming was such a celebrity in China that he carried the Olympic torch into Tiananmen Square.
But these days, not even the 7-foot, 6-inch Yao can fight his way through the U.S.-China trade war.
Yao’s trouble involves, of all things, wine, his post-NBA business in Napa Valley. Across California, the state’s signature wine business is getting hit by the tit-for-tat tariffs coming out of Washington and Beijing.
China’s latest round of retaliatory tariffs put the combined tax rate on a bottle of American wine at 93%, pushing prices out of reach for much of the Asian country’s growing middle class. Yao Family Wines, started by the Hall of Famer in 2011, has seen its export business drop by half over the past year, said Tom Hinde, the vineyard’s president and winemaker.
California vintners large and small who have spent years building relationships with China are now seeing their work undone by the tariff dispute.
Their travails illustrate the far-reaching effects of President Donald Trump’s trade war, where carefully laid business plans from fishing rod suppliers to soybean farmers can turn on the latest headline, meeting or tweet.
“There’s indecisiveness in the outcome, so that puts a pall over the buyers’ enthusiasm,” Hinde said. “We’re hurting ourselves.”
Read more: Hit by 93 percent tax, Napa wine falls victim to trade war
The Digest Group
Almere-Digest
EU-Digest
Insure-Digest
Turkish-Digest
For additional information, including advertising rates - e-mail:Freeplanet@protonmail.com
But these days, not even the 7-foot, 6-inch Yao can fight his way through the U.S.-China trade war.
Yao’s trouble involves, of all things, wine, his post-NBA business in Napa Valley. Across California, the state’s signature wine business is getting hit by the tit-for-tat tariffs coming out of Washington and Beijing.
China’s latest round of retaliatory tariffs put the combined tax rate on a bottle of American wine at 93%, pushing prices out of reach for much of the Asian country’s growing middle class. Yao Family Wines, started by the Hall of Famer in 2011, has seen its export business drop by half over the past year, said Tom Hinde, the vineyard’s president and winemaker.
California vintners large and small who have spent years building relationships with China are now seeing their work undone by the tariff dispute.
Their travails illustrate the far-reaching effects of President Donald Trump’s trade war, where carefully laid business plans from fishing rod suppliers to soybean farmers can turn on the latest headline, meeting or tweet.
“There’s indecisiveness in the outcome, so that puts a pall over the buyers’ enthusiasm,” Hinde said. “We’re hurting ourselves.”
Read more: Hit by 93 percent tax, Napa wine falls victim to trade war
The Digest Group
Almere-Digest
EU-Digest
Insure-Digest
Turkish-Digest
For additional information, including advertising rates - e-mail:Freeplanet@protonmail.com
