DW8 Growth, page-4348

Alibaba being a huge company may have some power in negotiating exemption from tariffs with the Chinese government for Australian wines but chances of this occurring are very slim to nil.

They could try ship the wines from Australia to a neighbouring ASEAN member countries such as Singapore, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia etc to avoid tariffs & then onship to China as part of free trade agreement between ASEAN countries but the Chinese will catch on as soon as there is a bit of volume. Small volume suppliers will be shipping this way & will have a paid agent getting it over the China border tariff free via corrupt Chinese government officials. Possibly covering labels in Thailand, Singapore etc & then removing them in China.

Australia will have to grow other global markets to compensate for the shrinking China market & as a result become less reliant on China. The glut of wine that was destined for China will now have to be sold all over the world. DW8 going global with B2B & DTC may happen quicker than we think.

The big sharks are lurking & watching. This will not take place unnoticed. May even have a few sharks get very hungry within 6 months of B2B launch. The industry is full of merger & acquisition activity with some ridiculous prices being paid by the majors.