High Chinese tariffs on EU brandy would leave French companies with vast amounts of cognac that could be hard to sell elsewhere, according to Reuters' calculations, analysts, and investors who fear firms could be forced to discount. China opened an anti-dumping investigation into brandy imported from the European Union in January, sparking fears cognac could suffer a similar blow to that taken by Australian wine when China introduced tariffs of up to 218.4%. Australian wine exports to China, worth $1.1 billion in 2019, were almost completely wiped out by high tariffs.