China’s Ministry of Commerce announced today that after the unfair competition investigation opened in 2024, it will apply customs duties of up to 19.8% on pork from the European Union (EU), which is seen as retaliation for taxes imposed by Brussels on its electric vehicles.
However, these taxes, which will be applied for five years from tomorrow, are significantly lower than those of up to 62.4% which were announced on a temporary basis on European pork last September.
As Comercio reports today on its website, customs duties will range from 4.9% applied only to the Spanish company Litera Meat, one of the companies selected as a sample in the investigations, to the aforementioned 19.8%, which will be imposed on companies that did not collaborate as well as on the Dutch company Vion.
For the companies that collaborated in the survey, among which several Spanish companies such as El Pozo, Sánchez Romero Carvajal, Argal, Campofrío, Noel or Friselva stand out, the rate will be 9.8%.
“Currently, the domestic (pork) sector is facing difficulties and there is a strong demand for protection,” explained a Commerce spokesperson, who assured that the report revealed that “EU pork products and by-products generate unfair competition, causing considerable damage to the industry in China”.
The Commerce Department assured that it had conducted the investigations “with full protection of the rights of all parties” and that its conclusion was “objective, fair and impartial”.
Spain, affected
The investigation was particularly important for Spain, since it is one of the main suppliers of pork to the Asian giant, to which it sent almost 20% of its export volume of this product last year.
Furthermore, according to information from the Spanish government, pork is the country’s second largest agri-food export product, behind olive oil.
In 2024, according to data cited by the employers’ association Interporc, Spain exported some 540,000 tonnes of pork products to China for 1,097 million euros, a figure which also represented 12.5% of the value of the sector’s foreign sales.
It should be remembered that this research excludes Iberian ham, one of the most representative products of Spanish gastronomy in the world, or sausages, which are little sold in China. The Asian country is an important destination for offal and parts less valued in Europe, such as the ears, snout or legs of this animal.
The process covers chilled or frozen pork and its by-products, as well as fats and offal.
Retaliation against electricians
Beijing opened these investigations in the middle of last year – as well as others against brandy or certain dairy products – due to tensions with Brussels over electricity, and extended them last June until today due to the “complexity” of the matter.
Spain, which was initially considered among the countries promoting the tariffs, ultimately abstained in the vote in which it was decided to apply these tariffs, in October 2024.
China and the EU have achieved relative rapprochement in recent months, particularly after the increase in customs duties triggered by US President Donald Trump.
The United States was precisely designated last year by sector analysts as a possible beneficiary of customs duties on European pork, alongside Brazil, Canada and Argentina.
The EU – where other producers such as the Netherlands and Denmark also stand out – even allocated 55% of its pork exports to China in 2020 due to the lack of production in the Asian country after a serious outbreak of African swine fever, but this figure fell to 30% in 2023 as the national herd recovered.
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