- China's Ministry of Commerce said it will impose up to 43% tariffs on EU dairy products.
- It said this measure is part of a trade retaliation in response to the EU's imposition of tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.
- It reported that high-rate tariffs are being imposed on major European firms such as French and Dutch dairy companies.
- The article was summarized using an artificial intelligence-based language model.
- Due to the nature of the technology, key content in the text may be excluded or different from the facts.
As retaliation last year for the EU's tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles
The third retaliation following European brandy and plastic compounds
China said it will impose tariffs of up to 43% on some EU dairy products, citing subsidies paid by the European Union (EU). This is part of China's trade retaliation that began after the EU imposed tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.
On the 22nd (local time), Bloomberg reported that China's Ministry of Commerce said in a preliminary decision in its subsidy investigation into EU dairy products that some EU dairy products were found to have received subsidies, and that it would impose tariffs of up to 43%.
China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said in a statement on its website that duties collected in the form of deposits would be imposed on certain European fresh cheeses, processed cheeses and creams. As a result, the French dairy company Promarsac was subject to a 30% tariff, and some companies under the Dutch cheese maker FrieslandCampina were subject to a 43% tariff.
China's move began as a response to the EU's imposition of tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles last year.
In October last year, the EU passed a resolution to impose tariffs of up to 45% on Chinese electric vehicles. It is also investigating various Chinese imports — including solar panels, robotic lawn mowers, cold-rolled stainless steel and epoxy resins — for dumping and unfair subsidies. Recently it has also been investigating online e-commerce platforms such as Temu and Ali for possible safety regulation violations.
China, in turn, launched retaliatory investigations targeting EU dairy products, brandy and plastic raw materials from 2024.
In July it announced anti-dumping duties of 27.7~34.9% on European brandy. In September it announced provisional anti-dumping duties on EU pork and from last week has imposed anti-dumping duties ranging from 5~19.8%. Earlier in May it imposed anti-dumping duties on EU polyoxymethylene (POM) products. Anti-dumping duties on POM from the U.S., Japan and Taiwan were also announced.
The EU has requested consultations through the World Trade Organization (WTO) and challenged the dairy investigation. As of this year, the top three destinations for EU cheese exports are the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan.
Contributing reporter Jeong-A Kim kja@hankyung.com
