Beijing. China said Thursday it would not impose tariffs on brandy imported from the European Union (EU) despite an anti-dumping investigation it launched in January finding dumping had occurred, giving both sides a respite in tense trade talks.
In a statement, China’s commerce ministry said European distillers had sold brandy in its market of 1.4 billion consumers at a margin of between 30.6 and 39 percent and that its domestic industry had suffered.
Dumping is a commercial practice consisting of selling a product below its normal price or even below its production cost in order to obtain competitive advantages.
China has been lobbying the bloc’s 27 member states to reject the European Commission’s proposal to adopt additional tariffs of up to 36.3 percent on Chinese-made electric vehicles in a vote in October and the decision not to impose tariffs on brandy could be seen as helpful to its case.
Shares in French spirits makers Rémy Cointreau and Pernod Ricard rose by around 8 percent after the announcement. Trading in Italy’s Campari was automatically halted in Milan after rising 4.5 percent.
Pernod Ricard maintains a “cautious” outlook on China despite the country’s decision not to impose provisional anti-dumping duties, Chief Executive Alexandre Ricard said.
Ricard declined to comment in detail on the decision, which was announced during the company’s annual results presentation.
In addition to the brandy investigation, Beijing has in recent months launched anti-subsidy investigations into dairy and pork products from the EU.
The dairy investigation was launched last week, the day after Brussels published its revised tariff plan for Chinese-made electric vehicles.
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– 2024-08-31 09:37:28
