EU ‘not worried’ as China probes bloc’s pork imports

3 months ago 24

The European Commission said it was “not worried” by Beijing’s announcement on Monday (17 June) of an anti-dumping investigation into the bloc’s pork exports, in an escalation of trade tensions with the bloc.

At the same time, analysts and producers said China was retaliating against the EU’s subsidy probe into Chinese electric cars, with exporters unfazed and producers concerned at the news and Spanish Agriculture Minister Luis Planas saying there is “room for negotiation”.

China launched an anti-dumping probe into imports of pork and its by-products originating from the EU less than a week after the EU announced tariffs on electric cars produced in the Asian country.

According to a press release by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Monday, Beijing received a request for an anti-dumping investigation from the pork industry on 6 June, accusing the EU of exporting at a lower price through unfair subsidies.

The ministry accepted the evidence provided by the applicant and said the period under scrutiny for dumping practices would be the whole of 2023.

The investigation will run for one year, the Chinese Ministry said, until June 2025 – but it warned it could be extended by a further six months.

The European Commission spokesperson for trade, Olof Gill, denied the dumping allegations and said the EU executive would closely monitor the Chinese proceedings.

“We are not worried,” said Gill, adding that all subsidies that take place under the bloc’s Common Agricultural Policy are “strictly in line” with obligations laid down by the World Trade Organisation.

Niclas Poitiers, a researcher at Brussels-based think tank Bruegel, told Euractiv that Beijing’s intention is to retaliate against the anti-subsidy probe into Chinese electric cars, announced by the EU last autumn.

The preliminary conclusions from the bloc’s investigation last week were that electric car prices were being distorted by Chinese state support.

“[China’s move] is in line with the past experience of (…) economic coercion, which is basically trying to use economic means to [achieve] political objectives,” Poitiers said.

According to Poitiers, the pork sector was chosen as a target “given the importance of agriculture in European politics”.

Last year, pigmeat accounted for 17% of EU agri-food exports to China – the bloc’s third largest agri-food trading partner after the UK and the US.

Despite the importance of EU pork exports to China, the trend has been declining in recent years, going down by as much as 23% in volume in 2023 from the previous year.

EU farmers association COPA and COGECA regretted that trade tensions had reached the agri-food sector.

“We are being retaliated against due to disputes that concern other sectors,” Ksenija Simovic, policy adviser at COPA and COGECA, told Euractiv, adding that investigations would cause big administrative costs for pig traders and producers.

Meanwhile, pork traders in Spain – among the bloc’s main pork exporters to China – told Euractiv that the potential impact of retaliatory tariffs would have been more worrying three to four years ago.

“China has already lowered the import levels quite a lot (…) the [potential] incidence [of tariffs] would not be the same today,” said Josep Llinas, president of the Spanish pork traders’ association ANCOPORC.

EU pork exports to China peaked in 2020 – reaching € 7 billion in value – as the spread of African swine fever in the country caused a loss of around 27.9 million tons in pigmeat supply in 2018-2021.

But Miguel Ángel Higuera, director of the Spanish producers’ association ANPROGAPOR, told Euractiv that the news was “very worrying” for the sector as China remains a key market for pork offal, which is not as attractive in other destinations.

Spanish Agriculture Minister Luis Planas said on Monday he is confident that “there is room for understanding and negotiation” to avoid a trade war between the EU and the Asian country.

He added that the importance of exports to China has decreased and “new markets have opened up” for the EU pork.

Analysts had recently told Euractiv that, despite preliminary tariffs on China-made electric cars, both parties have a strong interest in reaching a deal.

[Edited by Angelo Di Mambro, Anna Brunetti and Zoran Radosavljevic]