Trade dispute|China says it has started an investigation into subsidies received by some dairy products exported from the EU to China. The food-related certifications have been interpreted as a counterattack to the EU’s electric car tariffs.
China has started an investigation into subsidies received by certain milk-based milk products exported from the EU to China, news agencies say Reuters and Bloomberg. According to news agencies, China’s Ministry of Commerce announced the investigation on Wednesday.
According to Reuters, the investigation focuses on various cheeses, dairy products and creams intended for human consumption.
According to the news agency, the investigation seems to focus especially on Ireland, which clearly exports the most dairy products to China among the countries involved in the investigation. According to Reuters, Ireland exported 460 million euros worth of dairy products to China last year.
According to Reuters, China plans to explore a total of twenty support systems. In addition to Ireland, it specifically mentions Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Italy and Romania.
According to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, the investigation is expected to be completed this year.
China already said in June to start a so-called anti-dumping investigation For pork imported from the European Union. Dumping means that products are sold in other countries at an artificially lower price than in the domestic market, which can distort competition in the target country.
For foodstuffs the targeted examinations have been interpreted as China’s countermeasure to the EU’s punitive tariffs on electric cars manufactured in China.
China announced the pork-related dumping investigation about a week after the EU announced its intention to impose punitive tariffs on electric cars.
On Tuesday, the EU announced its plans to make punitive tariffs permanent. So far, the punitive tariffs announced in the summer are temporary, and the EU countries must decide whether to make them permanent by the beginning of November.
In its plan, the EU filed the punitive tariffs imposed on Chinese electric car brands slightly below the level of the current temporary tariffs, but did not completely abandon its tariff plans, as China would have liked.
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