France and China resume brandy tariff talks

France and China have resumed discussions of the duties Beijing has imposed on European brandy imports, with lobby groups hoping for an easing of tariffs. Cognac and Armagnac representatives met with the French president this week to discuss Chinese anti-dumping taxes on EU brandy. The Bureau National Interprofessionnel du Cognac (BNIC) said in a statement on Tuesday that “the Chinese investigation is not a legal problem but a political one, to which only a political response can be found”. The group has put pressure on the French government to resolve the dispute with China, which began after the EU threatened to impose tariffs on Chinese EVs — a policy which has since come into force. Representatives of the brandy industry in France have now said that “positive developments have been noted at several meetings at government level”. Exchanges between French and Chinese authorities in Shanghai have helped to renew the thread of dialogue, the lobby groups have said, calling these ...