China's anti-dumping measures on imported brandy from the European Union are fully compliant with the World Trade Organization's rules, the Ministry of Commerce said on Wednesday.
The action was implemented in response to a legitimate investigation initiated upon request from domestic industries, a spokesperson from the ministry said in a statement.
The commerce official highlighted that, in contrast, the EU's investigation into subsidies for Chinese electric vehicles was not initiated at the request of any industry and had encountered considerable opposition from related member countries and their businesses.
The statement said that the EU's measures severely lacked factual and legal grounds and clearly violated WTO rules, functioning more as trade protectionism under the guise of trade remedy measures.
To firmly defend the legitimate rights and interests of its EV industry, China has made strong representations at the WTO and has appealed the relevant anti-subsidy measures to the WTO dispute resolution mechanism.
China consistently opposes the abuse of trade remedy measures and urges the EU to promptly correct its erroneous practices, therefore jointly maintaining the overall economic and trade conditions between China and the EU, the spokesperson added.