China’s new anti-dumping duty targeting European brandy unexpectedly became the toast of France over the weekend, after Beijing granted exemptions to a string of French cognac makers.
But French leaders ended up hailing the ruling as a “positive step”, after a deal was brokered that saw major producers including Hennessy, Martell and Rémy Martin sign on to a minimum export price that exempted them from the levy.
That allowed Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi to wrap up his European tour on a positive note on Sunday, with Beijing having published an official list of 34 companies exempted from the tariff and French industry insiders sharing that the move could have a huge impact.
The exemptions will cover roughly 90 per cent of French cognac exports to China in volume terms, according to France’s Union Générale des Viticulteurs pour l’AOC Cognac (UGVC), a producers’ union with 2,000 members.
French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot framed China’s announcement as an “agreement” reached between China and the cognac industry at a joint press conference with Wang on Friday evening, Paris time.