A total volume of 30,000 famous-brand watches worth US$2.81 million were imported to China through its Shanghai port during the first nine months this year, respectively 14 and 30 times over the figures for the same period last year.
It shows that watch smuggling has been effectively contained, thanks to a severe crackdown over the past years, official from customs said.
Only 9,000 watches were imported through the Shanghai port from year 1995 to 1999, according to data.
Along with the improvement of living standards, more Chinese are looking forward to having internationally famous-brand watches, whose import is however limited in China. Watch smuggling ran rampant in China in the past years.
(People’s Daily 11/15/2000)
