NEWS
SPIRITSEUROPE CALLS ON EU LEADERS TO NEGOTIATE WITH CHINA TO AVOID PUNITIVE TARIFFS
By Tony Zhu
5-9-2024
Source: Remy Martin
Trade Group SpiritsEurope calls on the European Commission (EC) to extend full support to European distillers by entering into immediate negotiations with China to ensure that punitive duties will never be slapped on them.
China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOC) announced last week that they have found European distillers guilty of dumping by selling their products at 30.6 to 39 percent below market price in China, but punitive tariffs will not be applied for now.
They have unveiled plans to slap anti-dumping duties of 34.8 percent on imports of EU wine-based and marc-based spirits when the probe is finished in January next year.
“The tariffs, if applied, would constitute an unjustified market access barrier and have a detrimental impact on EU exports of wine-based and marc-based spirits to China, which represent the lion’s share (around 90 percent) of direct EU spirits exports to China in value,” said SpiritsEurope director Ulrich Adam.
“This decision is all the more incomprehensible because our sector has fully co-operated with the Chinese authorities throughout the entire investigation process initiated in January 2024 and has demonstrated complete transparency in its practices. The only silver lining at this stage is that the provisional duties will not apply for now.”
Beijing and Brussels are caught in an escalating trade war, prompted by an EC proposal to adopt additional duties of up to 36.3 percent on Chinese-made electric vehicles from October.
It is widely believed that China’s decision to hold off duties on EU distillers can work as a leverage, as EU member states decide whether to vote for the electrical vehicle tariffs or not.
Adam argued the spirits sector had become “a collateral victim of a broader trade conflict, which will limit the access of Chinese consumers to products they greatly value and appreciate, if not resolved as a matter of priority.”
The liquor sector is not the only food & drink sector to be caught in the midst of the trade war. Beijing has also recently launched an anti-subsidy investigation into pork and dairy products from the EU.
(the writer can be contacted at: info@thewinechronicle.com)
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