China won’t impose tariffs on EU brandy to ease tension on electric cars<\/p>\n
China said on Thursday it would not impose tariffs on brandy imported from the European Union despite an anti-dumping investigation it opened in January finding that dumping had occurred, giving both sides a respite in tense trade talks.<\/p>\n
In a statement, China’s commerce ministry said European distillers had sold brandy in its market of 1.4 billion consumers at a markup of between 30.6% and 39.0% and that its domestic industry had been hurt.<\/p>\n
Dumping is a trade practice of selling a product below its normal price or even below its production cost to gain competitive advantages.<\/p>\n
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% on Chinese-made electric vehicles in a vote in October and the decision not to impose duties on brandy could be seen as helpful to its case.<\/p>\n
Shares in French spirits makers R\u00e9my Cointreau and Pernod Ricard rose around 8% after the announcement. Trading in Italy’s Campari was automatically halted in Milan after rising 4.5%.<\/p>\n
Pernod Ricard maintains a “cautious” outlook on China despite the country’s decision not to impose provisional “anti-dumping” tariffs, Chief Executive Alexandre Ricard said.<\/p>\n
Ricard declined to comment in detail on the decision, which was announced during the company’s annual results presentation.<\/p>\n
In addition to the brandy investigation, Beijing has in recent months opened anti-subsidy investigations into dairy and pork products from the EU.<\/p>\n
The dairy investigation was launched last week, the day after Brussels published its revised tariff plan for Chinese-made electric vehicles.<\/p>\n