NEWS
MACRON CHARMED XI WITH TOP COGNACS & SPARED PRODUCERS FROM INTERIM TARIFFS
By Susan Lewis
7-5-2024
Source: Emmanuel Macron/Instagram
French president Emmanuel Macron’s Cognac charm offence with visiting Chinese president Xi Jinping seems to have paid off.
After presenting Xi with two bottles of carefully selected Cognac as state gifts yesterday, Macron was believed to have won Xi’s promise that China will not impose interim duties on French Cognac until the anti-dumping probe is over.
The Chinese president is visiting France to mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
High on their agenda are tricky issues including the Ukraine war and the trade disputes between China and the European Union.
China recently opened an anti-dumping investigation into European brandy — which mainly means French Cognac - as retaliation for EU investigations into Chinese subsidies for electric cars and medical devices.
Macron grabbed the chance of state gift exchanges, a formal protocol of state visits, to lobby for better treatment for Cognac producers and presented Xi with two bottles of Cognac - a Hennessy XO and a prized Louis XIII by Remy Martin.
He also presented the Chinese president with rare volumes by Victor Hugo, the first French-Chinese dictionary and a sculpted glass vase from Amboise.
Xi presented the French president with a striking stuffed bird, French-language books published in China and a painting.
Macron’s Cognac charm offence seems to have paid off. In a joint press conference after their summit meeting, Macron thanked Xi for what he called "his open attitude" in an anti-dumping probe on Cognac.
"I thank the president for his open attitude regarding provisional measures on Cognac and for his wish not to implement them," Macron said, adding that France hoped its products can continue having access to the Chinese market.
Reuters news agency quoted French diplomatic sources as saying told that China will not impose taxes or custom duties on French cognac until the probe is over.
France rolled out a grandiose welcome to Xi yesterday in Paris that included a ceremonial welcome at the monument housing Napoleon’s tomb and a state dinner at the Elysee Palace with celebrities and magnates.
Macron is hosting Xi today at the remote Tourmalet Pass near the Spanish border in the Pyrenees, where Macron spent time as a child visiting his grandmother.
It is meant to be a reciprocal gesture after Xi hosted Macron last year to the residence of the governor of Guangdong province, where the Chinese president’s father once lived.
(the writer can be contacted at: info@thewinechronicle.com)
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