'Global brands too dear in China' – Govt

28 Mar '11

2 min read

China has taken a serious note of a very big difference in prices of some high-end consumer goods like apparels and accessories between domestic and overseas markets.

The Ministry of Commerce recently conducted a price survey of selected high-end consumer goods and revealed this fact. As per data provided by the government, international brands made in China are sold in the Chinese markets at 30 to 60 percent higher prices than the overseas markets.

Watches, luggage, clothing, liquor, electronics products are sold at higher prices in domestic prices compared to overseas market. Among these categories, average sales prices of 20 premium brands in China's domestic market are nearly 45 percent higher than Hong Kong prices.

The gap widened, when compared to other countries. It was 51 percent higher than in the United States and 72 percent higher than in France.

The government has started taking measures to curb the irregularities resulting in such a big gap as it affects Chinese people badly. Due to this price gap, Chinese going abroad prefer to purchase from the overseas markets rather than domestic markets.

Ministry of Commerce spokesman Yao Jian, accepted that the price gap of high-end consumer goods became more prominent recently. He described it as unreasonable and unfair to Chinese people. He called on international brands to sell at fair and reasonable prices in Chinese markets.

Every year a large number of Chinese tourists go abroad and purchase foreign goods from the overseas markets. Even if an individual purchases international brands made in China worth US $1,000 from the overseas markets, tens of billions dollars are drained away.

It results in a big loss of import revenues too. It constitutes a substantial part in imports but can not be taxed, resulting in a big revenue loss to the government. For the same reason, it creates an inaccurate data of Chinese import and export trade too.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - China

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