China is to impose provisional countervailing duty deposits on imports of certain dairy products from the European Union, including fresh cheese and curd, the Ministry of Commerce has announced.

The ministry launched a countervailing investigation into certain dairy products imported from the EU in August last year. The preliminary findings are that the EU products were subsidized, causing material injury to China's domestic dairy industry.

According to the online notice, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council, acting on the recommendation of the Ministry of Commerce, has decided to impose provisional countervailing measures on imports of certain EU dairy products from Tuesday in the form of countervailing duty deposits.

EU companies will be subject to provisional countervailing duty deposit rates ranging from 21.9 percent to 42.7 percent.