China’s Ministry of Commerce announced on Friday that it will impose temporary anti-dumping duties on pork imports from the European Union, deepening trade friction between Beijing and Brussels.
The move follows a year-long investigation launched by Chinese authorities after the European Commission began probing state subsidies for China’s electric vehicle industry. According to a ministry statement, investigators “preliminarily determined that imports of pork and pig by-products originating in the European Union are being dumped on the Chinese market.”
To counter this, Beijing said it would implement “provisional anti-dumping measures in the form of deposits,” with import duties ranging from 15.6 percent to 62.4 percent. The measures will take effect on September 10 and remain in place pending the outcome of the investigation, which has already been extended until December.
The provisional tariffs mark the latest flashpoint in a fraught economic relationship between China and the EU. European officials have accused Beijing of distorting global markets with subsidies to key industries, particularly electric vehicles, while China has accused Brussels of protectionism.
Analysts say the pork tariffs are widely seen as a retaliatory measure, targeting one of Europe’s biggest agricultural exports to China. The bloc is the world’s largest pork exporter, with Spain, Denmark, and the Netherlands among the top suppliers to Chinese consumers.
The announcement comes against the backdrop of worsening geopolitical strains. China has resisted Western pressure to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, maintaining what it describes as a neutral position while calling for peace talks. Western capitals, however, suspect Beijing of quietly backing Moscow through trade and diplomatic cover.
Earlier on Friday, China’s foreign ministry lashed out at comments from former U.S. President Donald Trump urging European leaders to exert economic pressure on Beijing over its ties to Moscow, calling his remarks “interference in China’s internal affairs.”
With the new tariffs set to hit European exporters in the coming days, trade watchers warn of further retaliatory moves that could disrupt China-EU commerce across other sectors, escalating an already fragile trade dispute.
