China on Thursday justified its anti-dumping investigation into dairy imports from the European Union, claiming it was initiated “at the request of Chinese domestic industry” in response to the European Commission’s “hasty initiative” against Chinese electric vehicles.
“According to Chinese law and World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, domestic industries have the right to submit requests for trade measures to protect market competition and their own legitimate rights,” Commerce Ministry spokesman He Yadong said at a press conference.
Commerce Ministry spokesman He Yadong said “preliminary consultations were initiated after receiving the application in accordance with legal procedures,” “with an analysis of the evidence provided by the applicants.”
“The request from Chinese employers meets the conditions for conducting an ‘anti-dumping’ investigation (selling below cost), and that is why it is being conducted,” he added.
The spokesman said the investigation was “open and transparent” and aimed at “protecting the rights of all stakeholders.”
The announcement of China’s investigation into European dairy products comes a day after the European Commission adjusted proposed punitive tariffs on electric vehicle imports from China.
China’s investigations will focus on goods imported between April 2023 and March 2024 and the “damage” those purchases caused to the Chinese sector between 2020 and 2024.
The process will look at dairy products such as fresh cheese, curd and cream, and the impact of dairy subsidy programmes in Ireland, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Croatia, Finland, Romania and the Czech Republic.
At the request of Chinese employers, the products under investigation received subsidies from the EU and its member state governments, with some EU dairy companies receiving a total of 20 subsidies.
In May, Chinese state media predicted possible retaliatory measures against European tariffs, including anti-dumping investigations into European pork, which have now become a reality, and dairy products.
In July, Brussels proposed punitive taxes on Chinese electric cars, after a months-long investigation concluded that their penetration of the European market was harming EU manufacturers.
Last Tuesday, the European Commission adjusted its proposal to impose taxes on imports of Chinese electric cars into the EU to 36.3%, down from a maximum of 37.6% proposed in July.
The maximum duty of 36.3% to combat this unfair commercial practice, which will be levied in addition to the normal 10% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles, will apply to China’s SAIC and all companies not included in the investigations that did not cooperate with China’s SAIC in the EU investigation.
Fees of 17% and 19.3% will be levied on BYD and Geely, respectively. These figures are slightly lower than those proposed in July (17.4% and 19.9%) after adjustments to the calculations during the consultation phase with the companies.
Chinese manufacturers that cooperated with the investigation but were not included in it would be subject to an additional rate of 21.3%, slightly higher than the 20.8% proposed in the first rate proposal.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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