A customer selects pork products at a refrigerated display at a Sam's Club store in Yangzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province, on November 13, 2025. The store officially opened on November 12. Photo: VCG

China will begin imposing anti-dumping duties for five years on certain pork and pig by-products imported from the EU from Wednesday concluding an 18-month probe launched in June 2024. Trade experts said that the ruling was "objective" and "impartial," citing full compliance with China's domestic laws and World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.

In its final ruling, the investigating authorities decided that imports of certain pork and pig by-products from the EU were dumped on the Chinese market and caused material harm to China's domestic industry, according to a notice on the website of the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM). 

Based on the findings, the ministry set anti-dumping duty rates for EU companies at between 4.9 percent and 19.8 percent, and decided to implement the final anti-dumping measures from Wednesday for a period of five years.  The duty rate is a drastic drop from preliminary tariffs of up to 62.4 percent. 

China's domestic industry is facing operational difficulties and has voiced strong calls for protection, a MOFCOM spokesperson said in a separate statement on Tuesday. "The ministry conducted the investigation in strict accordance with laws and regulations, extensively solicited views from all interested parties, fully safeguarded their legitimate rights, and reached its conclusions in an objective, fair and impartial manner," the statement said.

"Taking anti-dumping action against foreign products that cause, or threaten to cause, injury to domestic industries is a right granted to WTO members," Shi Xiaoli, a professor at the School of International Law, China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times on Tuesday. The measures are aimed at upholding fair trade through rules-based means and protecting the healthy development of the domestic industry, Shi said.

The entire investigation strictly followed China's Anti-Dumping Regulations from start to finish, fully took into account the views of interested parties, and complied with relevant WTO rules, said the expert, who has closely followed the case and is familiar with its proceedings.

Thorough probe

China launched the anti-dumping probe on June 17, 2024, after receiving an application from the China Animal Agriculture Association (CAAA) on behalf of the domestic industry, and announced provisional anti-dumping measures in the form of cash deposits on EU pork imports on September 5, 2025, citing preliminary findings that these imports involved dumping and had caused material injury to local producers. The deposit rate ranged from 15.6 percent to 62.4 percent. 

"Since the launch of the probe, the investigating authorities have issued notices to interested parties regarding investigation registration and product classification, and allowed interested parties to search, review, transcribe and copy the non-confidential versions of the investigation application," Shi said.

The authorities also collected comments from interested parties, distributed questionnaires, conducted sampling in the dumping and injury investigations, convened hearings, and carried out on-site verifications, she added.

On October 31, 2025, the MOFCOM held a dedicated hearing at the request of the European Commission and the French pork industry association to hear views extensively from interested parties, according to the ministry.

The hearing was attended by about 80 participants from 37 interested parties, including the EU Delegation to China, the embassies of Spain, Belgium and Denmark, EU exporters and their associations, domestic importers, and domestic applicants and related member enterprises.

All procedures fully safeguarded the rights of all parties to present arguments and mount defenses, ensuring fairness and transparency throughout the process, Shi said, emphasizing that "The final ruling reached on this basis was objective and impartial."

"The conclusion of the probe was reached through hearings and multiple channels of international inquiry, reflecting China's active response to the concerns of relevant parties and its openness and transparency throughout the investigation and decision-making process," Yang Chengyu, an associate research fellow at the Institute of European Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

China has conducted the investigation in strict accordance with Chinese laws, regulations, and relevant WTO rules, following the principles of fairness, impartiality, openness, and transparency, "This approach sets China apart from the unilateral practices of certain countries and highlights its strong commitment to multilateral frameworks such as the WTO," Yang added.

The EU is the largest source of China's imports of pork and relevant products. From 2020 to 2023, pork products imported from the EU accounted for an average of 54 percent of China's total imports of such products, according to the industry application submitted to the MOFCOM last year.

Large volumes of pork imported from the EU have had a significant negative impact on China's domestic pork industry, contributing to a cumulative 54 percent drop in national hog slaughter prices from 2020 to 2023 and severely affecting the interests of breeders and farmers, according to the application.

The Global Times first reported in May 2024, citing an exclusive source, that relevant Chinese industries were gathering evidence and preparing to apply to the competent authorities for an anti-dumping investigation into imports of certain pork products from the EU. The newspaper later learned from a business insider in June, 2024 that the relevant industries had formally filed such an application. 

China has consistently opposed the abuse of trade remedy measures and stands ready to properly handle trade frictions with the European side through dialogue and consultation, with a view to jointly safeguarding the overall China-EU economic and trade relationship, a MOFCOM spokesperson said on September 5.