Beijing responds with an investigation on imports of European wine, fighting back the European Commission decision on the current war of the solar panels, what causes increased tensions between two major allies, long ago.
The Chinese Commerce Ministry has taken this decision after a request from the national wine industry, which stops wines imported from the EU “that enter the Chinese market using unfair trade tactics such as dumping or subsidies”.
China has announced the investigation, just one day after the EU did the same thing, although it has avoided linking both cases. Actually, China has disclosed two different press reports, justifying its performance on national demands.
China says that consider “its relations with the EU very important“. Beijing “is committed to resolving this situation through dialogue“.
¿Which is the origin of the problem? The European Commission on Tuesday applied a new duty on Chinese solar panels, rising from 11.8% to 47.6% if within two months there is no progress in negotiations between Europe and Asia.
Shen Danyang did not approve that decision and on Wednesday announced that hopes Europe stops persisting in taking unfair measures against Chinese solar industry.
By the way, last year China was supplied with 430 million / l of wine, most from European countries (70%).
In the first quarter of this year, China bought Spanish wine worth 20.1 million euros (7.9 million liters of wine, and some bulk wine), increasing by 53% over the previous quarter (according to ICEX). This means Spain holds third position in wine exporters to China.