China is expanding its own investigation into 'improper' European subsidies to dairy farming and the dairy sector. According to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, this is happening after complaints from its own dairy sector. No more products are being examined, but more possible subsidies, also in the Netherlands.
China and the EU have been involved in a long-standing trade dispute, which is mainly due to European anti-dumping measures against Chinese electric cars. China responded with measures against European meat exports first and later also dairy exports. No products are being specifically stopped yet, but In October the Ministry of Trade announced that it sends questionnaires to European producers and exporters to find out whether they are receiving improper government support.
The focus is on a limited range of dairy products. The new action does not examine more products, but it does look deeper into the production chain to see if there are more support measures to be found there. The broadened investigation focuses in particular on support programs in Denmark, France, Italy, and the Netherlands.
The European Union has not yet responded directly, but has contacted the World Trade Organization (WTO) in recent months. The idea is for a panel to investigate and assess the mutual complaints and measures. a recent publication by the OECD it turns out that when it comes to agricultural subsidies, China seems to have a lot of butter on its head.