China has launched an investigation into brandy imported from the EU following a request from the China Alcoholic Drinks Association on behalf of the domestic industry, according to a statement by China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM). The MOFCOM statement said that preliminary evidence showed that EU brandy exports to China display obvious dumping behavior, with an initial estimate of a dumping margin of 15.88%. The anti-dumping probe will look at EU-produced brandy in containers holding less than 200 liters imported from October 1, 2022 to September 30, 2023. MOFCOM will also investigate any damage done to the Chinese brandy industry from January 1, 2019 to September 30, 2023. The probe is expected to end by January 5, 2025 but may be extended for half a year under special circumstances. Chinese experts refuted that the anti-dumping practice was a “counter-strike” to the EU's anti-subsidy probe into Chinese electric vehicle (EV) exports, as hyped by some Western media outlets.
Li noted that the negative associations made by foreign media are misleading. China-Europe trade is a typical example of complementarity, and its normal development can provide benefits for both markets. The trade relationship between China and the EU has always been close, but it has also faced some challenges under pressure from the U.S. The EU formally launched an anti-subsidy investigation into imports of battery electric vehicles (BEV) from China on October 4, 2023, which will first determine whether BEV value chains in China benefit from illegal subsidies and whether this causes or threatens to cause economic injury to EU BEV producers, the bloc said in a statement on its website. The investigation was announced in September, and Chinese experts and industry insiders said that it was biased and showed a protectionist tendency, the Global Times reports.
