By Marine Strauss
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission said on Thursday it will impose anti-dumping duties on imports of sweetener erythritol from China after finding it was being sold in the European Union at unfairly low prices, threatening the EU’s own industry.
The definitive anti-dumping levies range from 34.4% to 233.3%, the Commission said in a statement. They will be collected retroactively from June 7 last year at the level of provisional duties that were imposed on July 19 last year. The provisional duties were set at similar levels.
The Commission said the lowest rate will apply to Baolingbao Biology Co and a duty of 156.7% to Shandong Sanyuan Biotechnology Co.
The duties will come into force on Friday and apply for five years. The EU sweeteners/erythritol market is worth around 30 million euros ($30.86 million) annually.
The EU and China have applied a series of tariffs on each other’s exports, notably EU duties on imports of electric vehicles built in China.
China also said on Thursday it would apply provisional duties on imports of industrial plastics from the United States, European Union, Japan and Taiwan after a months-long anti-dumping investigation.
($1 = 0.9720 euros)
(Reporting by Marine Strauss; editing by Philip Blenkinsop and Jane Merriman)
