China has put three companies from the European Union at the center of its anti-dumping investigation into pork products from the bloc.

Beijing launched the probe into EU pork products last month in a tit-for-tat trade war with the region, after the bilateral relationship hit fresh lows in recent months and Brussels said it would impose tariffs on electric vehicles made in China. 

In the latest phase of the probe, Beijing has chosen Danish Crown A/S, Vion Boxtel BV and Litera Meat S.L.U. — the top three exporters of pork products in the region to China — to determine if dumping has occurred and assess the damage to the domestic sector, China’s Commerce Ministry said Thursday. 

The selected companies must in due course submit complete and accurate answers to questionnaires issued by China, the ministry said in a statement on its website.

Danish Crown will remain “fully committed and transparent” in the investigation and expects “continued constructive collaboration” with all relevant authorities and parties, it said in a statement. Litera said it will be “at full disposal” and will collaborate with the involved institutions and organizations throughout the probe, according to a statement. 

The Dutch meat sector group COV also denied there was any dumping of European pork products on the Chinese market.

“We are confident that the investigation by the People’s Republic of China will prove this,” Laurens Hoedemaker, COV’s chairman, said in a statement on its website. “We hope to continue the mutually beneficial cooperation with China, so that we can provide the Chinese consumer with high-quality, safe and sustainable pork products from Europe.”

A spokesperson for Vion said the company shared the same view as COV. 

China’s move is “probably not surprising,” given the volumes the companies are sending to the Asian nation, according to Eva Gocsik, a senior animal protein analyst at Rabobank. “It’s all about just creating pressure and urgency,” she said by phone. 

China has also chosen 24 domestic pork producers, including 20 with the biggest slaughter volume, to decide the damage from possible dumping, according to the statement.