The wine imports of Guangdong port up 42.3% in the first two months of 2008

According to the statistics of Guangzhou Customs, the wine imports of Guangdong port was 3.272 million liters in the first two months of 2008, up 42.3% over that of the same period of last year and the value of imports was 200 million dollars, up 1.3 times.
After entering WTO, China reduced import duty by a large margin. In 2005, Chinese import duty of bottled wine reduced from 43% to 14% while bulk wine reduced from 43% to 20%. All preferential policies stimulated the increase of wine imports.
At present, Guangdong port mainly imported wine by general trade. On the other hand, more and more people imported goods by bonded storage. In the first two months of this year, Guangdong imported wine 2.624 million liters by the general trade, up 21.9% while the bonded storage was 169 thousand liters, up 3.3 times.
Hong Kong is China's distrubition hub of imported wine. The re-exports of wine from Hong Kong to Guangdong increased from 1.967 million liters of 2005 to 2.947 million liters of 2007 with average annual growth rate of 22.3%. Then in the first two months of this year, it was 876 thousand liters in volume, up 43.8% and 4.937 million dollars by value, up 61.3%.