Brussels, 05/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 5 June, French Agriculture Minister Stéphane Le Foll stated that European wines did not enjoy any export subsidies, with reference to China's recent launch of antidumping investigations into wines from the European Union (see other article). Exports of European wines to China do not enjoy any subsidies, the European Commission confirmed on the same day.
It is “current European agricultural and viticultural policy: there is no export subsidy”, said Stéphane Le Foll, leaving the Council of Ministers in France (our translation throughout). The CMO (common market organisation) “is only about improving the quality of the wines and the commercial organisation”.
On Wednesday, the Chinese government launched an antidumping and anti-subsidy procedure against wines from the European Union. “We have to remain calm. There are discussions between Europe and China. We need to be able to find the necessary coherence in order to keep a fairly simple objective: Europe cannot remain open unless a certain number of social and environmental rules are observed and unless there are rules in place to avoid dumping”, the French representative added. “I can understand the concern (of the winegrowers), because this has come from a large country, China, where we have an extremely strong and important presence (…). I am not here to worry anybody. I am here to say that, in these talks that are being launched between Europe and China, we will do all in our power to find the right solution, the right balance in our commercial relations”, Le Foll continued.
Exports of European wines to China do not enjoy any subsidies, the European Commission confirmed on the same day. “We believe that there is no dumping and that there are no subsidies on exports of European wines to China”, Commission spokesperson declared. “We have taken note of China's announcement. We see it as an important announcement and one we have to respond to”, he added. According to the spokesperson to Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos, “there are subsidies for the production of wine in Europe, but not for exports”.
China represented 11.4% of exports of EU wines in 2012, with a value of €763 million, according to figures provided by the Commission. The main European countries concerned are France (€546 million euros), Spain (€89 million) and Italy (€77 million). (LC/transl.fl.)