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We had exhibited at Hong Kong International Jewelry Manufactures’ Show 2018, held at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Center, for 4 days from 29/11/2018 to 02/12/2018．
The current world’s situation is steadily going to a bad direction, even in America of booming economy, many people has been becoming dissatisfied． The result of the midterm election, held on November 6th, clearly indicated the situation．From the strong measure of the trump administration over the issue of trade war between the US and China, part of industry and agricultural organizations were dissatisfied, and the non-white population was strongly rebelling against President Trump who would not quit racial slur and immigrant expulsion． More than 60％ of women became unsupported from the disgust for the remarks that can be taken as female disdain． Although the economy continues to expand in the United States, economic disparity widens and dissatisfaction of the low and middle income groups had been increasing．All of these resulted in presenting “NO” to the Trump administration．
Looking back on the history, the Great Depression that began in the United States in 1929, each country prioritized the protection of domestic industries and took measures such as devaluation of foreign exchange and raising tariffs one after another. High tariffs and import restrictions which had been adopted here caused the retaliatory tariff rising in other countries and resulted in reduction of world trade. This protectionist trade policy has led to the accelerated chain reaction of the world trade shrinkage,and eventually it caused the Second World War. From that bitter experience, after the SecondWorld War, the idea which expresses the necessity to lower the tariff rate or eliminate barriers to trade under the same rules among each country, so called building a multifaceted free trade system, has been widely shared until now. And it created globalism．
However, if the Trump administration would strengthens the protection trades further as top priority to the interests of its own country it will destroy the idea of the multilateral free trade system andagain to raise the risk of block economy transformation like before．Even if it does not reach to that point, there is a possibility of damaging economic efficiency and growth promotion by free trade.
Moreover, it might cause a big loss to the world economy and worsening political order significantly．Also, the US-China trade issue is also becoming a war of attrition, where the two major powers are fighting and hitting each other’s economy. The essence of the US – China trade war is a battle for holding hegemony over the economy, advanced industries and military power．Both countries cannot make big concessions, so it is believed that the US – China trade war would be prolonged. Since it is inevitable this influence to the world, it seems that it is about time to consider future countermeasures, such as diversifying beyond the US and China for both export destination and local production．In our industry, there is much business with these two countries, so we are required to respond to political and economic changes in both countries．
As a result of all, business confidence in China has become worse and it is starting to influence our industry as well. Even at this jewelry show, the number of Chinese buyers was fewer than usual,and I had an impression that even those who came had less buying intention. In China, stocks fell, realestate cannot sell like before, and economy is getting worse due to the trade friction between the United States. And, jewelry store seems to be struggling quite a bit at the retail site. Especially the sale of high priced items was bad and I felt that purchase was being postponed unless it was a very worthwhile item in this jewelry show．
Now, it became popular to see the buyers who take pictures of the product at the venue and sell it using SNS;eventhey also had difficulty to sell at this show． Sales on this SNS are expected to become more and more severe as the China Electronic Commerce Law will be enforced on January 1st, 2019． Tax payment is obliged by this EC law, and criminal liability is charged by tax evasion. So the flow of electronic payment, such as sales on EC and WeChat, also has the potential to change from next year． Our industry is largely concerned with this EC law, andI think it is necessary to watch closely from now on. It seemed that the business as a wholesaler was quite difficult at this show．
However, this jewelry show was originally intended for end users, and although the number of buyers was small, but the number of end users seems a lot, and lively． On Saturday and Sunday, which is the third and fourth day of the exhibition, a lot of visitorshad bustled from the afternoon andenjoyed comparing the products of the exhibiting companies． We had the opportunity to meet lively visitors at our booth, make it possible for us to do business until the end of the show and finish with a fun atmosphere.
This was the last jewelry show of this year. There were various things happened this year, but we were able to end this year by your sincere support. I would like to give my sincere gratitude to everyone, who came to this show and who gave us support throughout this year. It is likely to be a tough year next year, but I hope to overcome together with you all. Best wishes for the holidays and New Year.
