N. Peter Kramer’s Weekly Column
Following the EU’s recent vote to go ahead with the Commission’s proposal for tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles imported into the EU, China is hitting back. It announced anti-dumping measures on imported brandy from the EU; a significant blow to famous brands such as Remy Martin and Hennessy for instance. Shares in these brands plunged immediately by more than 8 percent and 4 percent respectively.
The Chinese government explained it has determined that the country’s domestic brandy industry is being ‘threatened with substantial damage, and that there is a causal relationship between this dumping and the threat of substantial damage’. What is remarkable, or perhaps not, is that Beijing is copying the Commission’s argumentation used to push through the high tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.
France is the most affected by the Chinese decision as China imports 99 percent of its brandy from that country. No coincidence! French President Emmanuel Macron was the most ardent advocate for tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. Beijing has hinted that it may not stop at brandy. Who will be next? Italy with its export to China of pharmaceutical products also voted for the tariffs on Chinese electric cars? Or the semiconductor manufacturing parts imported by China from the Netherlands, another supporter of the tariffs.
Another rash EU action with no winners and only losers.
