This past week, CTM covered the following issues.

The Chinese government formally implemented key commitments from its recent trade truce with the United States, issuing a series of official documents to de-escalate economic tensions. The measures include the suspension of export controls on some items, and the lifting of sanitary bans on some U.S. goods. It also suspended port fees on American-owned/operated vessels and lifted sanctions against five U.S. subsidiaries of the Korean shipbuilder Hanwha. Simultaneously, Beijing announced a major new regulatory move, placing 13 additional fentanyl precursor chemicals under stricter export controls when destined for the U.S., Mexico, and Canada.

For its part in implementing the U.S.-China deal, the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced a one-year suspension of its controversial "Affiliates Rule," which automatically subjected any entity at least 50% owned by a blacklisted company to the same export restrictions. Simultaneously, the agency removed one Chinese firm and six related aliases from the Entity List, citing enhanced export compliance commitments from the companies.

China published its first dedicated policy framework for promoting green trade, aiming to align trade growth with the country’s carbon neutrality goals and strengthen its international influence on low-carbon standards.

The review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is getting underway, with all three countries gathering input from stakeholders. One key demand the governments are hearing from certain industry groups is that Chinese trade and investment should be further restricted. As part of the Canadian process, there have been some detailed discussions about how China factors into considerations related to the review.

The U.S. updated its critical mineral list. CTM described these updates, comparing the critical and strategic minerals identified by the U.S. and China, and indicating which materials are currently subject to China's export control regime.

The EU opened a new Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) investigation involving a procurement bid in Portugal that includes a Chinese company.

In preparation for the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting of November 17, Belgium raised the issue of "Chinese Anti-Dumping Investigation on European Pork – The Need for a Level Playing Field," and called for a "coordinated and united approach" in response to the investigation.