By South China Morning Post | Created at 2024-11-19 14:43:38 | Updated at 2024-11-19 16:24:43
1 hour ago
Around 500 staff at Hennessy, the cognac maker owned by French luxury giant LVMH, went on strike on Tuesday, a union representative said, to protest what he said was a plan to potentially bottle the brandy in China to avoid tariffs.
Beijing imposed duties of more than 30 per cent on imports of bottled brandy from the European Union in October, hitting Hennessy as well as other French companies such as Remy Cointreau and Pernod Ricard.
A plan to ship cognac in containers and bottle it in China rather than France was discussed last week by industry body Le Syndicat des Maisons de Cognac (SMC), said Michael Lablanche, a regional representative for the CGT labour union.
SMC could not immediately be reached for comment.
Rémy Martin has no plans to relocate its bottling line, a spokesperson from the French cognac maker said.
Newspaper La Tribune reported that Hennessy was considering a test bulk shipment of cognac by the end of the year.
