00:00Influencer peddling is all the rage in China.
00:05Online, of course, but now more than ever before,
00:08on the actual trade fair floor as well,
00:10where rapid-fire hawking of product over multiple mobile phones
00:14direct to China's billion-plus consumers
00:17has never been this, well, in-your-face.
00:21I don't know how they talk so much.
00:23Everything you would possibly need to know about Vietnamese iced tea.
00:27And other products from overseas.
00:29Doesn't matter if it's New Zealand milk powder and ice cream
00:32or Italian cleaning supplies,
00:35complete with a Mandarin-speaking European.
00:38They're all competing for Chinese cyber shoppers
00:41in a market where around 40% of all retail sales are now done online.
00:46A single day, 11-11, is huge.
00:49We have a strong presence on online platform
00:52and we have a strong focus on Gen Z.
00:55I know Singers Day had another few more weeks to go,
00:58but so far the result has been very, very encouraging.
01:00Online shopping in China is growing at three times the pace of traditional retail,
01:05with many brick-and-mortar outlets feeling that pain.
01:09CPI did pick up slightly in October,
01:11but overall retail spending is expected to have slowed again
01:15as households hold on to savings amid economic uncertainty.
01:19Add to that are lingering worries importers and exporters here feel
01:23about the fragile trade truce with the United States.
01:27High tariffs are hurting everybody, hurting both sides.
01:31One of the things that as businesses we do hope
01:33is that there is longer than a 14-month detente, shall we say,
01:37but that there is some general baseline of the relationship.
01:41These are areas we're going to trade in.
01:42These are areas that are no-go.
01:43This is kind of a gray area where we'll keep negotiating on
01:46because that would help us all, to your point,
01:48really understand what we can move forward.
01:49And if I do want to have a five-year contract with an American supplier,
01:53I know no matter what I'm going to get that product.
01:55I think it's been critically important that we have clarity.
01:59U.S. wine exports to China this year were down 77%
02:02in the seven months through July from a year ago,
02:05with Chinese tariffs and taxes combined amounting to about 75% on American wine.
02:11And yet, Barros is cautiously optimistic for a recovery
02:15as the truce has kept tariffs from escalating further.
02:18It was a very, very positive development
02:20that they came up with an actual number
02:23that's going to be in place for the next 14 months.
02:27Because before that, I think a lot of importers
02:30weren't so upset about the tariff,
02:33they didn't know what it was going to be.
02:36And so now we know what it's going to be,
02:38at least through the end of December of 2026.
02:40And I'm hoping that that brings some normalcy back into the process.
02:45It's an endurance game shared in some respect
02:48by the many influencers in nearby booths.
02:51To keep talking and to keep the parties on the other end engaged.
02:56Stephen Engel, Bloomberg News, Shanghai.
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