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China to impose punitive brandy tariffs from this week
Chinese authorities have just announced that additional import duties on EU brandy will come into force on 11 October.
Importers of all wine-based spirits originating in the European Union (namely Cognac, Armagnac and brandies) are being told to lodge deposits for shipments coming into the country from this week. Deposits are equivalent to the level of duty announced on 29 August, averaging 35%.
Since the tariffs were first threatened earlier this year, experts have claimed they are a response to the EU’s probe into Chinese electric vehicles. The Bureau National Interprofessionnel du Cognac (BNIC) now claims that China’s decision to impose the taxes now is a direct and immediate response by the country’s authorities to the decisions taken by Europe on 4 October in favour of taxing Chinese electric cars.
The new step confirms the threat of definitive taxes on EU spirits, as soon as the European Union has formalised its surtaxes on Chinese electric vehicles, potentially at the end of October.
Chinese authorities had originally said that they had no intention of levying provisional duties before the end of the investigation.
The BNIC has called on the French authorities to protect the country’s brandy industry.
“Faced with this development, the French authorities cannot abandon us and leave us alone to face Chinese retaliation that does not concern us. As we have been saying for months, the impact of these taxes would be catastrophic for our industries and our regions,” it said in a statement. “As France and China celebrate the 60th anniversary of the re-establishment of diplomatic relations this year, everything must be done to avoid this outcome. We call on our government to finally take the necessary steps to put an end to this escalation, of which we are hostages and whose outcome is now more threatening than ever.
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