BEIJING, 18 Jun: The Chinese government is taking aim at European farmers instead of German automakers by launching an investigation into European Union pork imports, just days after the EU said it plans to impose provisional tariffs on China-made electric vehicles.
\nThe Commerce Ministry didn\u2019t mention the EV tariffs when it announced Monday that it is opening an anti-dumping investigation into pork from Europe, but the move is widely seen as a response to the EU move on electric cars. It also gives China a bargaining chip in any trade negotiations.
\nChina could have slapped a 25% duty on imports of gasoline-powered vehicles with large engines in the name of combating climate change, a step that would would have hit Mercedes and BMW hard. In choosing not to do so, at least for now, the government may be acknowledging the public opposition of the German auto industry to the EU tariffs, as well as its sizeable production in China.
\nThe Chinese market is a major one for German automakers, and the head of the country\u2019s auto association, the VDA, described the June 12 EU tariff announcement as a further step away from global cooperation. \u201cThe risk of a global trade conflict is rising further as a result of this measure,\u201d Hildegard M\u00fcller said in a statement.
\nThe investigation of EU pork imports will cover various products including fresh and frozen pork meat, intestines and other internal organs. The announcement says it is expected to take one year, with a possible six-month extension.
\nOlof Gill, a spokesperson on trade for the European Commission, told journalists in Brussels that EU farm subsidies \u201care strictly in line with our WTO obligations\u201d and that the commission would follow the investigation very closely and intervene as needed to ensure that the Chinese probe complies with World Trade Organization rules.
\nChinese officials have said the EU investigation into subsidies for electric vehicle production in China is \u201ctypical protectionist behavior\u201d that disregards WTO rules. AP<\/p>\n
The EU plans to impose provisional tariffs of 17.4% to 38.1% on EVs from China for four months starting July 4. They would apply to vehicles exported to Europe by both Chinese and foreign brands, including Tesla.
\nEU exports of pork products to China hit a peak at 7.4 billion euros ($7.9 billion) in 2020 when Beijing had to turn abroad to satisfy domestic demand after its pig farms were decimated by a swine disease. Since then they have dropped, hitting 2.5 billion euros ($2.6 billion) last year. Almost half of that total came from Spain.
\n\u201cWe must avoid an escalation of trade countermeasures,\u201d said Spanish Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo.
\nThe Spanish pork industry association Interporc said in a statement that it would \u201coffer complete collaboration with Chinese authorities\u201d and provide them with any documents they required.
\n\u201cThe agricultural industry does not tend to be the source of conflicts but it does end up paying the price often enough,\u201d said Spain\u2019s Minister for Agriculture, Luis Planas, citing the United States\u2019 imposition of tariffs on some EU farming products in 2019 during a dispute over subsidies for aircraft maker Airbus.
\n\u201cI believe that we have both the time and the margin to negotiate and try to avoid this trade conflict,\u201d Planas said. AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BEIJING, 18 Jun: The Chinese government is taking aim at European farmers instead of German automakers by launching an investigation into European Union pork imports, just days after the EU said it plans to impose provisional tariffs on China-made electric vehicles. The Commerce Ministry didn\u2019t mention the EV tariffs when it announced Monday that it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-242496","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242496\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}