Comment on “'A matter of time' before duty cut on luxury goods” (China Daily, June 28)

Cutting tariffs on imported goods to reduce inflation is fine but doing this for luxury goods just to balance trade is foolish. This should be delayed to allow local Chinese luxury brands to catch up first. Go to any mall in a large Chinese city and you will find almost all luxury brands are foreign. This is also true in all other developing countries and Chinese brands need more time against this unfair advantage.

China should help local brands get into international markets as they are only good in manufacturing but very poor in brand building and global marketing. Look at the miserable margins the manufacturers get for making iPhone, Nike, Prada for example, compared to the huge margins the brand principals make. But local brands must first gain decent market share in China, to have a strong base, before having any chance in the global markets where foreign brands have a 100 year head start.

Cosmic, via China Daily website

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