Hong Kong wine duty slashed to zero

Really, you shouldn’t have…

No sooner had I stepped off the plane here in Hong Kong than I got several messages telling me that the Hong Kong government had just announced that from now on duty on wine is to be reduced from a 40% ad valorem tax to zero. (The duty was 80% only recently.)

The government has apparently been engaged in a great deal of economic analysis and is clearly hoping to establish the city as a fine wine hub for the booming Asian fine wine market. Collectors currently holding millions of dollars and pounds worth of fine...