FEBRUARYASIA BUSINESS OUTLOOK8NEWSROOMCHINA SETS TARIFFS ON US GOODS IN RETALIATION OF US TARIFFSThe newly launched Shein India app, which became available last Friday, features items that are produced, promoted, and sold exclusively by Nextgen Fast Fashion, a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd. Nextgen produces these items on the Shein India platform using an extensive network of Indian manufacturers, the majority of which are MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises), as reported by an industry insider.Shein has re-entered the Indian market almost five years after its ban through the country's leading retailer, Reliance Retail. The new Shein Platform is built and hosted in India, and its ownership and control will always remain with Reliance Retail, he said.Shein India Fast Fashion App from Reliance Retail currently has over 10,000 downloads on Google's Play Store and is ranked among the top 10 among peers on Apple's store.There is no equity ownership of Shein in the Indian company and app Shein India has been developed by Reliance Retail and is hosted in the country.The newly launched platforms have no links with the now in-operational Shein app and the former website (Shein.in) which were previously managed and operated directly by Shein, he said.Further, the platform will be hosted on infrastructure in India, and all platform data will remain in India. Shein will not have any access to or rights over such data, as the industry insiders informed.Reliance Retail is now working with Shein to develop a completely localized model for digitizing the supply chain of Indian MSMEs and factories, creating jobs and enhancing the competitiveness of the Indian textile sector globally. After US President Donald Trump imposed a 10 percent tariff on Chinese imports, China's finance ministry swiftly responded with a package of duties on a variety of US goods. 10 percent tariffs on crude oil, farm equipment, pickup trucks, and heavy displacement cars were levied by China, while 15 percent duties were placed on US coal and liquefied natural gas (LNG). Tariffs will go into force on February 10.Trump agreed to a 30-day halt on Monday in exchange for border and criminal enforcement concessions with Mexico and Canada, reversing his last-minute threat of 25 percent tariffs on the two neighbors.Trump will not speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping until later this week, according to a White House official.Due to China's enormous US trade surplus, Trump launched a vicious two-year trade war with it during his first term in 2018. Tit-for-tat tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of commodities disrupted global supply chains and hurt the global economy.According to Chinese customs statistics revealed last month, China committed in 2020 to spend an additional $200 billion annually on US goods in order to stop that trade war. However, the COVID-19 outbreak delayed the plan, and the country's yearly trade gap has since grown to $361 billion.While claiming that fentanyl is America's problem, China has kept the door open for negotiations and stated that it will contest the levies in the World Trade Organization and take other steps. SHEIN INDIA TO HOST INDIAN DATA LOCALLY
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