China announced on Tuesday that it will go ahead and impose anti-dumping duties on European Union pork imports for five years, though at significantly lower rates than the temporary levies introduced in September.
The decision follows a Chinese investigation launched last year, which concluded that EU pork was being dumped on the Chinese market and had caused substantial damage to the domestic industry.
Under the new measures, duties will range from 4.9 percent to 19.8 percent starting December 17, down from provisional rates of 15.6 to 62.4 percent, with Beijing insisting the findings were objective and justified amid domestic industry pressures.
Spain, Europe’s largest pork producer, said its exporters would face an average duty of 9.8 percent, a level Madrid described as acceptable and minimized in impact, while China imported 4.3 billion yuan worth of Spanish pork last year.
France, which exported 115,000 tonnes of pork to China in 2024, welcomed the move as a relief after facing much higher provisional duties, with companies such as Groupe Bigard now subject to a 9.8 percent levy.
The pork decision comes against the backdrop of a broader EU-China trade dispute that began last summer when Brussels moved to impose tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles over concerns about unfair subsidies.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping
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