Cheese, China lowers tariffs and mascarpone celebrates

An important breakthrough has arrived for the export of Italian cheeses, one of the key sectors of the Italian food industry with exports worth around 6 billion euros: Chinese authorities have indeed announced a reduction in tariffs from the current regime that ranges between a minimum tariff of 28.6% but can go up to 42.7% to a new range between 9.5 and 11.7 percent. The system was set up by Chinese authorities a year ago to target European cheeses in response to EU measures on the import of electric motors from China. But now the penalty is being scaled back. According to Assolatte, "pending a complete evaluation of the reasons, the result indicates that Beijing has recognized at least some of the defensive arguments presented by the European Union. Initially, Chinese authorities had asked to verify whether certain measures to support dairy farming provided for by the Common Agricultural Policy could generate distortions in the prices of products exported to the Chinese market." ...