French PM Bayrou will go to China to seek progress on cognac trade dispute, Macron says

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that new Prime Minister Francois Bayrou will travel to China to try to make progress on a trade dispute that threatens cognac sales.

Macron, who was speaking at an annual conference to French ambassadors, did not say when the trip would take place.

The European Union imposed duties on Chinese electric vehicles of up to 45% in October. Beijing returned fire days later with tariffs on brandy imports, which many saw as targeting France, a leading supporter of the Chinese EV tariffs.

Beijing has notably required importers of EU brandy to pay deposits ranging from 30% to 40%, hitting French companies including Hennessy, Pernod Ricard and Remy Cointreau.

Former French Prime Minister Michel Barnier had been expected to travel to China early this year to make progress on the dispute but his government fell in December after it failed to find enough support for a budget aimed at taming a wide deficit.