Beijing’s threat of tariffs on EU agricultural imports comes as trade volumes are already falling.

It’s crunch time.

The European Commission is days away from concluding an investigation into Chinese state aid to its booming electric vehicle industry. And Beijing is warning that any import tariffs that the EU imposes will trigger a swift response, vaulting beyond a mooted levy on French brandy imports to hammer European agriculture as a whole.

Pork and dairy are first at the plate, according to the state-owned Global Times. Over the last two weeks, it has reported that the Chinese government is considering anti-dumping probes into imports of both foods, which in 2023 accounted for nearly €5 billion — a quarter of EU agri-food exports to the Asian giant and 2 percent of total exports.