美国国家公共电台 NPR California Winemakers Nervous About U.S.-China Trade Talks

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Negotiators from the United States and China have been trying to avert¹ an all out trade war, And among those closely watching this - winemakers here in California. In the past decade, U.S. wine exports to China rose 450 percent. But last month, China slapped a tariff² on U.S. wine, as well as on other U.S. food and agriculture exports. That was in retaliation³ for the U.S. tariffs⁴ on steel and aluminum⁵. KQED's Shia Levitt reports from Napa Valley.

SHIA LEVITT, BYLINE⁶: More visitors come to Napa Valley from China than any other foreign country. Tasting rooms like this one at Honig Winery feature signs in Chinese including ads for door-to-door international delivery.

MICHAEL HONIG: So basically, this is...

LEVITT: On a balcony overlooking his vineyard, Michael Honig points to row upon row of grapes.

HONIG: So we're looking over here. This is our 70 acres. So we're basically looking west in Rutherford. That's sauvignon blanc, a little past that is cabernet. And both of those are the blocks that we use to make the wines that we send to China.

LEVITT: China is now one of the top export destinations for U.S. wine, most coming from California. But a combination of import taxes, tariffs and shipping⁷ costs already mean a huge markup⁸.

HONIG: Our price points in the U.S., for example, for our Napa cab is roughly $50 on the shelf. In China, it's more than double. It's over a hundred dollars on the shelf in China.

LEVITT: That was before the latest 15 percent tariff increase. Chinese consumers haven't felt the sting yet because most stores there are still stocked with pre-tariff wine. Jeff Zhang runs a company called Napa Go, marketing⁹ U.S. wines to China. Zhang says the big wine-drinking season is around Chinese New Year. The spring is usually a good time to restock. But this year, some importers are delaying their purchases.

JEFF ZHANG: Because of this tariff's increase, there are a good amount of wine being held in the inventory¹⁰ from the U.S. - not shipping to China.

LEVITT: They want to make sure there'll be enough demand at the new prices. Honig Winery had an annual shipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars scheduled for this month. That's now on hold till the fall. Likewise, Wente Vineyards in Livermore has $500,000 in wind shipments on hold. Outside another winery in Calistoga, Chinese foreign student Kai Feng Chen says his friends who have traveled to Napa love the wine and will likely continue to buy it. But if the tariff boosts prices for people back home in China, that would make them less popular.

KAI FENG CHEN: If you have a $500 budget for wine, well, most Chinese, I believe, would choose French wine instead of American wine.

LEVITT: And French wines are not the only competition, says winemaker Honig.

HONIG: If you look at other wines from around the world - New Zealand, Australia, Chile - they either have zero tariffs or going to zero tariffs next year as it relates to China. We're going up, doesn't make any sense. We're not going to go out of business because we don't sell wine in China, but I think the bigger challenge is we're going the wrong direction.

LEVITT: A few wineries have opted¹¹ to temporarily take on the entire hit of the new tariff themselves, fearing a lost market share now might take them years to build back. Other wineries are splitting the cost burden with importers. Later this month, winemakers from around the world will converge¹² in Hong Kong for one of the largest wine shows of the year. Many California winemakers are hoping trade talks will be resolved by then so they can continue to make inroads into this growing market.

For NPR News, I'm Shia Levitt in Napa Valley.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE MATTSON 2'S "LONGING OF THE LEFTIST")

1 avert   

v.防止，避免；转移(目光、注意力等)

参考例句：

• He managed to avert suspicion.他设法避嫌。
• I would do what I could to avert it.我会尽力去避免发生这种情况。

2 tariff   

n.关税，税率；(旅馆、饭店等)价目表，收费表

参考例句：

• There is a very high tariff on jewelry.宝石类的关税率很高。
• The government is going to lower the tariff on importing cars.政府打算降低进口汽车的关税。

3 retaliation   

n.报复，反击

参考例句：

• retaliation against UN workers 对联合国工作人员的报复
• He never said a single word in retaliation. 他从未说过一句反击的话。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 tariffs   

关税制度； 关税( tariff的名词复数 )； 关税表； （旅馆或饭店等的）收费表； 量刑标准

参考例句：

• British industry was sheltered from foreign competition by protective tariffs. 保护性关税使英国工业免受国际竞争影响。
• The new tariffs have put a stranglehold on trade. 新的关税制对开展贸易极为不利。

5 aluminum   

n.(aluminium)铝

参考例句：

• The aluminum sheets cannot be too much thicker than 0.04 inches.铝板厚度不能超过0.04英寸。
• During the launch phase,it would ride in a protective aluminum shell.在发射阶段，它盛在一只保护的铝壳里。

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

8 markup   

n.加价，涨价，利润

参考例句：

• This mean that international delivery will line markup from today.这意味着国际快递将从今天起全线涨价。
• Our products are expensive,and distributors and retailers always want a large markup.我们的产品很贵，经销商和零售商总是要求高额利差。

9 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

10 inventory   

n.详细目录，存货清单

参考例句：

• Some stores inventory their stock once a week.有些商店每周清点存货一次。
• We will need to call on our supplier to get more inventory.我们必须请供应商送来更多存货。

11 opted   

v.选择，挑选( opt的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She was co-opted onto the board. 她获增选为董事会成员。
• After graduating she opted for a career in music. 毕业后她选择了从事音乐工作。

12 converge   

vi.会合；聚集，集中；(思想、观点等)趋近

参考例句：

• The results converge towards this truth.其结果趋近于这个真理。
• Parallel lines converge at infinity.平行线永不相交。