Strasbourg, 01/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - While waiting for settlement of the solar panels issue, the ninth global importer of wine is targeting around 15 subsidies to the EU wine-growing sector.
On Monday 1 July, China formally opened its investigation into the production and financing conditions for wine produced in the EU and traded on Chinese territory.
In a press release published on Monday, the Chinese Ministry of Trade said that the Chinese investigations department will apply the Chinese regulations and laws strictly and will respond to the requirements of WTO rules. It gave assurances that, throughout the investigation procedure, China will respect the principles of openness and fairness, and the legal rights of the different parties, and that it will reach a just decision based on objective facts and on relevant regulations and laws.
Beijing had announced that it would launch an investigation following the European Commission's decision at the beginning of June to impose provisional anti-dumping duties on Chinese exports of solar panels. The EU nevertheless denies subsidising its wine exports and selling below cost price on the Chinese market.
China reportedly has found 16 different subsidies in the European wine-growing sector - in particular national systems as part of the rural development policy, promotion programmes in third countries and support for wine cellars. China could impose additional provisional duties two months after formally launching its investigation. According to a European source close to the file, it is probably at this stage that the Commission could take the file to the WTO.
Chinese duties on wine currently stand at 14% on wine in bottles, 20% on bulk wine and 65% on aromatised wine. In 2012, China imported 363 million litres worth nearly US$1.436 billion. The EU exported 2.573 hectolitres of wine to China worth €764 million. France (€546.6 million, 1.395 hectolitres) is the leading European exporter, ahead of Spain (€89.2 million, 692,000 hectolitres) and Italy (€77 million, 326,000 hectolitres). (EH/transl.fl)