(Adnkronos) – China has announced the extension of its anti-subsidy investigation into dairy product imports from the European Union. The investigation, which concerns certain imports of European cheeses, milk and cream, will be extended by six months, until February 21, 2026, due to the “complexity of the case,” the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.
Beijing launched the investigation in August 2024, after the EU moved to impose a series of tariffs on Chinese electric cars following an investigation into Chinese practices of supporting its own producers, which Brussels says distort the European market by ensuring greater competitiveness for Chinese car brands. The Chinese government rejects this accusation, and has since announced a series of investigations into the import of European products such as pork, dairy products and brandy, seen by most as a retaliatory practice. The two parties are also discussing the introduction of minimum prices for Chinese electric vehicles, but no agreement has yet been reached, while EU tariffs on Chinese cars will be scrutinized by the World Trade Organization.
Last June, Beijing also extended the investigation into EU pork products until December, while in July it imposed tariffs on European brandy, while granting exemptions to major producers, provided they respect a minimum price. At the end of the month, an EU-China summit was held, during which the President of the European Council, Antonio Costa, stressed how the EU wanted to achieve “concrete progress on trade and economic issues”. However, deep divisions remain on the trade front, while in the West and elsewhere fears are growing of a second “China shock”, along the lines of the profound global economic realignment that followed China’s entry into the WTO in the early 2000s, following the increase in Chinese exports.
