Recent developments related to the deal to sell two key Panamanian ports to an American private equity company have added new complications and complexity to the situation, leading to uncertainty as to the ultimate outcome.

Yesterday, the Trump administration posted notices indicating that it would be proceeding with national security investigations under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 related to imports of semiconductors and semiconductor manufacturing equipment and of pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical ingredients.

In a significant scaling back of its "reciprocal tariffs," the Trump administration has exempted key electronics products such as smartphones and semiconductors from these tariffs, although U.S. officials also made clear that tariffs on these products were coming soon through a different statutory process.

Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) has introduced a bill to strengthen existing regulatory restrictions on the sale of Chinese connected vehicles in the United States.

This past week, CTM covered the following issues: The tit-for-tat tariff war between the U.S. and China: * U.S tariffs and China’s retaliatory tariffs * China’s other responses to the U.S. tariffs * State Council White Paper on bilateral economic and trade relations * China’s WTO challenge on

At a meeting of the WTO's Council for Trade in Goods today, China proposed a discussion of the April 2 "reciprocal tariffs" announced by the Trump administration, as well as additional U.S. tariff actions.

In another escalation of the trade war, President Trump has raised tariffs on Chinese imports again, with the current additional tariff rate on covered Chinese imports at 104% as of April 9.