China has announced that starting Saturday, July 5, it will impose anti-dumping duties of up to 34.9% on brandy imported from the European Union, escalating tensions between the two major trading partners.
A few months after the EU started looking into Chinese subsidies for electric vehicles, Beijing started looking into European automobiles last year.
China then declared that “provisional anti-dumping measures” had been placed on imports after a preliminary verdict had proven the existence of dumping.
China’s Customs Tariff Commission “decided to impose anti-dumping duties on imports of the relevant brandy originating from the EU starting from July 5, 2025,” according to the Ministry of Commerce.
“The investigating authority has finally ruled that dumping of brandy imported from the EU does exist. The domestic brandy production industry is threatened with significant damage, and there is a causal relationship between the dumping and this threat,” the statement read.
According to the ministry, the duties will apply to brandy in containers of less than 200 litres.
It specified that the tax rate for the French spirits giant Jas Hennessy will be 34.9%.
Remy Martin will face a duty of 34.3%, while Martell will be subject to a rate of 27.7%.
EU Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen and EU Council President Antonio Costa plan to meet with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang in Beijing on July 24.
