One billion new customers

摘要

Normalizing trade relations with China, combined with its entry into the World Trade Organization, could mean tremendous opportunities for you. Unless you've visited there, says Karen Reinecke, president of the California Pistachio Commission, it's difficult to appreciate what China's entrance into the world trading market could mean. As recently as 1992 the country was "very Third World." But China 2000 is a very different place. "Everyone -- right down to the little old ladies on the street -- have cell phones," she says. What does it mean for U.S. fruit and nut growers? In the not-too-distant future, there could be more buyers demanding their products. In the past, though China was huge, it was dismissed as being a poor, isolated country with alimited import market. Not any more. "These people want the Western way of life," says Reinecke. "They want to buy imported goods."