In China, cognac risks toasting the car

The counterattack did not take long in the trade war between the European Union (EU) and China. Five days after Brussels’ decision to surcharge Chinese electric vehicles by up to 35%, Beijing announced on Tuesday October 8 that importers of European brandy will have to post a deposit with customs from Friday. A measure penalizing especially cognac, which represents 95% of brandies. “From October 11, warns the Ministry of Commerce, importers will have to, when importing brandies from the EU, provide the corresponding deposit to the customs of the People’s Republic of China. » This sum will be debited retroactively if Beijing decides to actually hit these spirits, while it considers the national brandy industry “threatened with substantial damage” by its European competitors. The Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade, Sophie Primas, declared that France, like the EU, will challenge these “incomprehensible measures” before the World Trade Organization (WTO), even if it has been struggling for years to settle disputes. In May, during President Xi Jinping’s state visit, his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, welcomed the fact that China was not imposing “provisional” taxes on spirits and offered him, among other gifts, bottles of cognac. “Notifications of tax intentions” The threat had in fact been pending since January. Beijing then launched an investigation into wine-based spirits from the EU, a response to that of Brussels on Chinese state subsidies to electric cars, but also to other sectors such as photovoltaic solar energy and especially wind turbines, a sector where Chinese manufacturers threaten large German, Spanish or Danish industrialists. In mid-September, nearly a thousand wine growers, joined by cognac merchants, marched through the Charentaise city to the sub-prefecture to alert the government of the “urgency” of the threat. In August, China claimed to have evidence of European dumping. And the trading houses then received “notifications of tax intentions” which could be around 35% on average, specified Florent Morillon, president of the French National Interprofessional Cognac Bureau. Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers Cognac shaken by China’s anti-dumping investigation into European wine spirits Add to your selections Despite firm opposition from Berlin, EU member countries voted on Friday October 4 , the imposition of customs duties on electric cars imported from China. A measure which is due to come into force at the end of October, when Brussels had also put in place a guarantee deposit mechanism for Chinese manufacturers. The wine profession then felt that it had been “sacrificed” by the government and the EU. You have 35.3% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.



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