BEIJING (Reuters) -China’s commerce ministry stated on Wednesday it might lengthen its anti-dumping investigation into brandy originating from the European Union by three months, lower than the complete extension allowed beneath its earlier steering.
The probe, which was launched on Jan. 5 and because of be accomplished in a yr, will likely be prolonged to April 5 because of the “complexity” of the investigation, the ministry stated in a short assertion, with out elaborating.
The ministry beforehand stated the probe may very well be prolonged by six months beneath particular circumstances.
Preliminary findings from the probe have proven dumping of EU brandy threatens to wreck China’s sector, the ministry stated in October because it imposed short-term measures on EU brandy imports, hitting French manufacturers together with Hennessy and Remy Martin.
The probe was broadly seen as the end result of France’s help of EU tariffs on China-made electrical automobiles. French President Emmanuel Macron beforehand referred to as the probe “pure retaliation”.
The Chinese language measures require China’s importers to pay safety deposits of almost 40% in the event that they want to import brandy from the bloc, making it extra expensive upfront to ship brandy from the EU.
France’s commerce ministry beforehand referred to as the Chinese language measures “incomprehensible”, and that they’d violated free commerce.
Final month, the EU Fee stated it had formally introduced the provisional Chinese language anti-dumping measures to the World Commerce Group.
French brandy shipments to China reached $1.7 billion final yr and accounted for 99% of the nation’s imports of the spirit.
