French cheese lined up in a store in Paris.
Bertrand Guay | AFP | Getty Images
China announced on Monday that it would impose tariffs of up to 42.7% on European Union dairy products following the results of an anti-subsidy investigation launched in August 2024.
China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement that EU dairy subsidies are causing “serious harm” to China’s domestic dairy industry.
The ministry said the tariffs will come into effect on December 23, and the tax rate will be determined by the amount of the “ad valorem subsidy rate” from the Tariff Commission.
Commerce Department officials said the tariff rate would range from 21.9% to 42.7%, with companies that “cooperated with the investigation” facing a 28.6% tariff and companies that “did not cooperate” facing a top rate of 42.7%.
Affected products include fresh, processed and blue cheeses, including the famous Roquefort blue cheese aged in the caves of Roquefort-sur-Sourzon in France, as well as some types of milk and cream.
The tariffs mark an escalation in trade tensions between the regions, which escalated last October when Brussels imposed tariffs of up to 45% on electric vehicles imported from China.
Separately, in November, the EU challenged China’s imposition of tariffs on EU brandy imports at the World Trade Organization, stating that “China’s interim measures on EU brandy are not consistent with WTO rules.”
An EU spokesperson said on Monday that the move was “unjustified and unwarranted” and that the EU’s executive body, the European Commission, would provide comments to Chinese authorities, according to Reuters.
The commission was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC on Monday.
Last week, the Chinese government significantly lowered tariffs on pork imports and pork by-products from the European Union, applying new tariffs ranging from 4.9% to 19.8% on dozens of pork exports from Europe.
This comes after the country imposed temporary anti-dumping duties of up to 62.4% on pork imports from the EU in the form of cash deposits in September.
—CNBC’s Anniek Bao contributed to this report.
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that China tariffs will go into effect on December 23rd.
