China imposes anti-dumping duties on European brandy as trade tensions rise
The tariffs, effective on Saturday, will range from 27.7% to 34.9%, China's Commerce Ministry said. They are to be in place for five years and will not be applied retroactively.
The announcement came during a European visit by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi aimed at ironing out trade differences. Wang was set to visit Paris after stops in Brussels and Berlin.
The anti-dumping duties are the result of a probe China launched last year into European cognac, after the European Union undertook a probe into Chinese electric vehicles subsidies.
'The investigative authority finally ruled that the dumping of related imported brandy from the EU has existed,' read a statement by China's Commerce Ministry. 'The domestic brandy industry faces a material threat of damage, and there is a causal relationship between the dumping and the substantial damage threat.'
Besides cognac, China has also launched investigations into European pork and dairy products. The brandy probe was the first and targeted mainly French makers of cognac and similar spirits such as Armagnac.
China initially announced provisional tariffs of 30.6% to 39% on French cognac producer Remy Martin and other European brandies after a majority of E.U. countries approved duties on electric vehicles made in China.
Wang was set to meet his French counterpart, Jean-Noël Barrot, later Friday in Paris.
His European tour comes ahead of a China-EU summit to be focused on trade later this month in Beijing.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
31 minutes ago
- Yahoo
China hits Europe's brandy exports with duties but adds exemptions
French drink manufacturers are bracing for losses as China said it would place a heavy trade duty on brandy exports from the European Union, potentially taking a gulp out of their sales in the coming years. A tariff rate on EU brandy could go up to 34.9% for five years from 5 July. The duty was announced after China's Ministry of Commerce concluded an investigation into European brandy imports, determining that the products threatened its national brandy industry. Cognac, which is heavily exported from France, was a product of concern, although major cognac makers like Pernod Ricard and Remy Cointreau will now be exempted. China's investigation ruled that the EU had engaged in spirit 'dumping', a practice where foreign goods are sold significantly below their normal price. The corrective tariff will be charged in addition to a normal customs duty. Belgium-based trade group spiritsEUROPE, representing EU producers of spirit drinks, said in a statement that it 'regrets today's decision by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce to impose final anti-dumping duties averaging 32.2% on EU wine-based spirits, marc-based spirits, and brandies as of 5 July,' adding that 'the measures will still pose a significant barrier to legitimate trade'. The trade group also said that the EU spirits sector provided 'substantial evidence over the last 18 months, clearly demonstrating the absence of any dumping practices on the Chinese market'. 'The decision originates from a spat around unfair competition and protectionism and it is bad news for European drinks companies who enjoy big sales to Asia,' said Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell. 'That explains why shares in Rémy Cointreau and Pernod Ricard were weak on the news as drinkers in China might think twice about buying their products if the price is now much higher.' The news pulled down French spirits makers' share prices, with Pernod Ricard slumping 1%, Remy Cointreau down 1.75%, and luxury giant LVMH, the parent company of Hennessy and Rémy Martin, losing 2.1% around 11 CEST in Europe. Related China holds off on EU brandy tariffs as subsidy spat drags on China's anti-trust tariffs over brandy come under fire Closer to midday, share price losses moderated after news broke that China spared major cognac producers from the new duties, provided they sell at a minimum price. Trade group spiritsEUROPE welcomed the partial relief, saying that 'to safeguard their operations and maintain a stable presence in the Chinese market, several affected companies have entered into price undertakings (raising export prices) with MOFCOM (China's Ministry of Commerce)', adding that these will replace anti-dumping duties for these companies. The group urged Beijing to expand this option to all European companies affected. SpiritsEUROPE Director General Hervé Dumesny said 'Beyond its direct impact on our sector, this decision risks fuelling trade tensions at a time when mutual cooperation is more important than ever.' The decision on brandy comes after the EU decided to impose tariffs as high as 45% on Chinese-made electric vehicles last year.
Yahoo
36 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Patel and Ratcliffe try to bolster claims that FBI and CIA conspired against Trump
The release of formerly classified FBI and CIA documents this week illustrates how President Donald Trump's appointees at both agencies are trying to use the levers of government to prop up his long-standing assertions that intelligence agencies conspired against him. The FBI released emails on Tuesday that purport to show an effort by the bureau's leaders in 2020 to cover up a source's claim that there was a Chinese plot to throw the presidential election to Joe Biden. In a statement to the Daily Mail, Trump's FBI director, Kash Patel, said the emails reveal that bureau leaders 'chose to play politics and withhold key information from the American people.' And CIA Director John Ratcliffe released an internal agency analysis related to the 2020 election that he argued showed that Democratic appointees 'manipulated intelligence and silenced career professionals — all to get Trump.' Patel's and Ratcliffe's claims went beyond the information contained in the released documents. The documents do not describe definitive evidence that any official acted out of political motive or engaged in anything beyond the good-faith debate that is typical of the intelligence verification and analysis process. The emails do show that at least one FBI official raised the concern that the report conflicted with congressional testimony at the time by Director Christopher Wray, who said the FBI was not aware of any Chinese attempt to interfere in the presidential election. A former FBI official told NBC News that Wray does not recall being made aware of the report. A former senior FBI official said he was not aware of the report either. The former official, who requested anonymity, noted that the bureau produces hundreds of reports every day based on such tips, which do not always pan out. Patel also promoted an article by the right-wing journalist John Solomon than mentioned that U.S. Customs and Border Protection had seized fake licenses that were arriving mostly from China and Hong Kong around the time the FBI received the tip. According to a 2020 news release from CBP, 20,000 fake licenses were seized in Chicago between that January and June. It said 'most were for college-age students,' a population that has historically sought licenses with fake birthdays so underage students can purchase alcohol. The FBI did not respond to a request for comment from Patel regarding the fake licenses. Dozens of judges, including Trump appointees, have found no evidence of widespread or systemic voter fraud affecting the 2020 election, despite allegations promoted by Trump and his allies since he lost that year's presidential race. The day after Patel released the emails, though, Trump appeared to mention them during a press conference where he talked about 'China and the license plates' and claimed that 'tens of thousands of cards' were used to vote in the 2020 election. The emails released by Patel offer a window into the deep concern among senior career FBI analysts about an intelligence report from an agent in the Albany field office based on a single, unvetted source making a historic allegation: that the Chinese government sent thousands of fake IDs to help people fraudulently vote for Biden. The report was ultimately withdrawn over concerns about its veracity. Two FBI officials familiar with the matter told NBC News that the tip was not credible intelligence and never should have been sent out in an intelligence report. The CIA analysis cited by Ratcliffe found procedural faults with how the agency crafted its assessment that Russia tried to denigrate Hillary Clinton and help Trump get elected in 2016. But it didn't question that broad conclusion — one echoed by two exhaustive congressional investigations. Yet Trump appointees and allies quickly argued the documents vindicated Trump's long-running claims that he had been wronged by intelligence agencies investigating foreign election interference. The CIA review found that 'Obama's Trump-Russia collusion report was corrupt from start,' read the headline of a New York Post piece by conservative columnist Miranda Devine. A press release from the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, said the 'bombshell' FBI emails showed 'FBI headquarters interfered with [an] alleged Chinese election interference probe' to shield then-Director Christopher Wray 'from political blowback.' The FBI emails show that senior career public servants at the bureau had concerns about the reliability of information from a confidential human source who claimed that the Chinese Communist Party planned to use fake IDs to cast ballots for Biden in the 2020 election. The information came from a source that an FBI agent based in Albany, New York, had just met, who in turn got it from a separate unnamed source. The emails say the source in Albany also repeated a claim made on social media that the Chinese government was intentionally spreading Covid in the U.S. — an allegation that has never been corroborated. One email released by the FBI said the information had not been verified through other intelligence-gathering methods. The emails say top bureau intelligence analysts Nikki Floris and Tonya Ugoretz ordered the intelligence report recalled because it lacked corroboration. Floris was forced out of the FBI earlier this year, and Ugoretz — who was promoted to become the FBI's top intelligence official — was recently placed on leave. The FBI has not said why. Floris and Ugoretz did not respond to requests for comment. The emails lay out an internal debate over the reliability of the intelligence, which former FBI agents say is typical. The Albany office, backing its agent, sought to prevent the report from being recalled. Senior FBI officials, meanwhile, pushed for corroboration of the source's allegations. In a Sept. 25, 2020, email, an assistant section chief in the Criminal Intelligence Branch said the claim about Chinese election interference was 'getting a lot of attention from all HQ divisions.' The assistant section chief added, 'We know that the source is first contact and hasn't been re-interviewed. Are you considering recalling the [intelligence report] until you can track the source down and re-interview? Everything election is getting scrutiny, and we just want to be sure we have reliable sourcing.' In a Sept. 28 email, another official noted that the allegation that China was trying to influence the election in favor of Biden, as well as previous seizures of fake driver's licenses imported from China, 'were all documented in some fashion on open sources.' The official added that 'Given the lack of specifics we received in the initial reporting, my first opinion was that the [confidential human source] wants to help and is probably supplementing his reporting via open sources.' Ultimately, the emails show, an FBI official who specializes in Chinese foreign interference instructed the Albany office that 'we have not approved a re-issue' of the report 'specifically because of our concerns that the reporting is not authoritative.' The new head of the FBI's Office of Congressional Affairs is Marshall Yates. A former Republican aide on Capitol Hill, Yates has ties to figures that have long backed Trump's false claim that the 2020 election was stolen. Yates was chief of staff to former Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., on Jan. 6, 2021, when Brooks spoke at Trump's rally in support of efforts to overturn his election loss. Yates then went on to work for the Election Integrity Network, a project headed by Republican lawyer Cleta Mitchell, a key figure in the efforts to overturn the 2020 election. In a 2022 speech in New Mexico, Yates said the 'election objection did not go as we wanted in 2020, on Jan. 6,' but that 'luckily' it had 'sparked a grassroots movement across the country for election integrity.' The FBI did not reply to a request for comment about Yates' involvement. The internal review released by Ratcliffe last week examined how the CIA put together a 2017 intelligence assessment that concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help Trump defeat Hillary Clinton. The review found some deviance from standard procedures, but it defended the assessment's overall findings. The report disclosed that two senior leaders of a CIA mission center focusing on Russia objected to the conclusion that Russia's goal was to help secure Trump's victory but agreed that Putin hoped to denigrate Clinton and undermine the U.S. democratic process. The review also cited complaints by some CIA officers that they felt rushed by a tight deadline to produce the assessment. The CIA director at the time, John Brennan, was a Democratic political appointee who has since become an ardent Trump critic. In a second post on X, Ratcliffe argued that the complaints about the process were evidence the 'assessment was conducted through an atypical & corrupt process under the politically charged environments' of Brennan and then-FBI Director James Comey. The CIA declined to comment when asked to explain the basis for Ratcliffe's accusation. A special counsel appointed during the first Trump administration looked extensively into how the CIA crafted its assessment but filed no criminal charges and reported no clear evidence that political bias tainted the process. A bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee investigation in 2020 concurred with the 2017 intelligence assessment and found no reason to dispute its conclusions. This article was originally published on
Bloomberg
41 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
China Can Work With France Across Range of Industries, Wang Says
China is ready to cooperate with France in industries such as nuclear power, aviation, artificial intelligence, green energy and biotechnology, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said. Wang's comments in Paris capped a European visit that also took him to Brussels and Berlin. During his trip, China announced anti-dumping duties on European brandy while exempting major cognac makers that agreed to minimum price levels.
