Beijing (EFE).- Several Chinese companies are “preparing evidence” to request the country’s authorities to open an anti-subsidy investigation against some imports of dairy products from the European Union (EU), the official newspaper Global Times reported.
In a message published this Saturday on the social network
Details of the investigation are not known
Although at the moment no further details are known and the authorities have not yet commented on the matter, this is a new sign that Beijing could be preparing tariff measures against the EU in the face of growing trade tensions with Brussels.
At the end of May, the same media assured that several Chinese companies are “preparing evidence” to ask the country’s authorities to open an ‘anti-dumping’ investigation against pork imports from the EU, something that could especially affect Spain, since which is the largest European supplier of pork to China.
In October, Brussels opened an investigation into the public subsidies that Beijing grants to electric vehicles, which allow global markets to be “flooded” with “artificially low” priced vehicles – something that had already been denounced in the past with respect to aluminum or steel. due to excess capacity – a decision protested by Beijing, which described it as “blatant protectionism”.
Trade tensions
The Chinese Chamber of Commerce in the EU claimed last month “to have been informed by people knowledgeable in the sector” about a possible increase in tariffs by Beijing on imported large displacement vehicles in response to the tariffs recently announced by the United States. to Chinese cars and those that Brussels could apply soon.
According to local experts, Beijing is considering raising the taxes imposed on the import of sedans and SUVs with engines larger than 2.5 liters in retaliation to up to 25%.
Bloomberg noted that trade tensions are increasing in recent weeks as the deadline for the aforementioned European investigation approaches: this month, community authorities should inform Chinese exporters whether they will finally impose additional tariffs on electricity companies.
This week, the Chinese Foreign Ministry urged the EU to “maintain its commitments to free trade” and warned that any measure that “harms” economic and commercial cooperation between both parties “would not go unanswered.”
