AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France (Reuters) – China’s anti-dumping probe into Europe’s cognac trade is a tit-for-tat response to European Union tariffs on Chinese language electrical autos, the finance chief at Hennessy cognac proprietor LVMH mentioned on Saturday.
China introduced plans on Friday for a listening to on European brandy imports, ramping up stress on the identical day the European Fee’s provisional tariffs on Chinese language-made electrical autos took impact.
“You generally is a regional participant with a really explicit function in globalisation, as in our case, and regardless end up hostage to quite a few conflicts that don’t have anything to do along with your actions,” mentioned Jean-Jacques Guiony, chief monetary officer of the posh conglomerate.
“Each time there’s a stray bullet in a commerce battle someplace […] there is a good likelihood that we find yourself having to barter, having to clarify that we’re not dumping, that the value of cognac is correct,” Guiony mentioned.
He was talking on a panel about commerce at an economics convention within the southern French metropolis of Aix-en-Province.
LVMH manufacturers produce leather-based items, clothes, liquor and champagne largely in France and Italy and export around the globe.
Hennessy and different European cognac producers will attend a listening to on China’s anti-dumping probe of the trade in Beijing on July 18, Reuters reported on Friday. French cognac accounts for many of China’s brandy imports.
China launched the investigation into brandy being “dumped”, or offered at artificially low costs, in January after a grievance by the China Alcoholic Drinks Affiliation on behalf of the home brandy trade.
Guiony mentioned commerce wars have detrimental knock-on results economically and politically, however added that Europe should stand collectively, saying China at present sees the area as weaker than america.
“We should not be the sick man of globalisation.”