China launched an anti-dumping probe Friday into European Union brandy exporters after a preliminary inquiry found their products dominated its multi-billion dollar market and could be unfairly disadvantaging domestic producers. File Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI
China launched an anti-dumping probe Friday into European Union brandy exporters after a preliminary inquiry found their products dominated its multi-billion dollar market and could be unfairly disadvantaging domestic producers.
The Chinese Commerce Ministry probe into brandy imports in containers under 53 gallons, in response to a November complaint filed by the China Liquor Industry Association on behalf of the domestic brandy sector, will look at the impact on Chinese firms, the Ministry of Finance said in a news release. Advertisement
“According to the evidence provided by the applicant and the preliminary review of the Ministry of Commerce, the total output of the applicant’s relevant brandy accounted for the main part of China’s total output of similar products in the same period in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and the first half of 2023 which meets investigation criteria set by Anti-Dumpling Regulations,” the MoF said.
“Dumping” is the practice of selling goods in another country at below-cost prices as a way of offloading excess supply or increasing market share.
The Chinese probe is an apparent jab at France, the world’s largest exporter of fine brandies such as Remy Martin and Hennessy, after Paris played a central role in persuading the European Commission to launch an investigation in September into whether subsidies China provides to its electric vehicle makers were anti-competitive. Advertisement
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at the time that global markers were “flooded with cheaper Chinese electric cars and their prices are kept artificially low by huge state subsidies.”
China reacted angrily to the probe, calling it a “blatantly protectionist act.”
Three weeks ago, the commission launched a second separate investigation into allegations China was dumping biodiesel onto the E.U.’s $34 billion market for the renewable fuel after a complaint from the bloc’s producers that the prices of Chinese imports were “artificially low.”
China’s probe into EU brandy has echoes of a wine war with Australia in 2020 amid deteriorating relations between the two countries in which China slapped duties on Australian imports of up 212% after an investigation found China’s domestic winemakers were being unfairly disadvantaged.
