Ruminatrix
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Saturday, May 17, 2003
Quarantine or Panic?
The main effect of China's SARS outbreak on America thus far: a slowdown in business travel to Asia, (and cheap fares for those willing to go) and a temporary halt to the adoptions of Chinese infants. Now the Latest SARS Victim is Clothing Industry, due to fear of infection from fabrics, tanned hides, zippers or buttons, combined with the slowdown in travel noted above. Some 40% of America's clothing imports come from the Far East.
From personal observation, the main effect of SARS-phobia on New York's Chinatown is empty seats in normally packed dim sum parlors and restaurants. All of the above are quite impressive for a disease that has so far claimed fewer than a thousand lives worldwide.
Update: according the UK Gurdian's Victor Keegan (link courtesy F-Train) China's current annualized growth rate of 9% makes it a potential "engine of global economic recovery." But all bets are off if it can't export its goods due to fear of SARS, justified or not.