This past week, CTM covered the following issues.

Apple has cleared a critical regulatory hurdle in China after the country's internet regulator approved its mobile-device generative artificial intelligence service, Apple Intelligence, for deployment on domestic devices.

China has been working to fortify its economic footprint and shield its regional manufacturing networks in Southeast Asia, signing pacts with both Thailand and Cambodia amid escalating geopolitical pressure on global trade supply chains.

The U.S. Trade Representative's Office (USTR) announced its final tariff rates in its Section 301 investigation of whether 60 economies prohibit imports made with forced labor, with the rates for China and Hong Kong remaining at 12.5%, and Taiwan's rate at either 10% or 12.5% depending on the product. 

At a House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing, lawmakers put the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) under intense scrutiny over U.S. export entity listings and AI chip sales to China.

As part of a markup session, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation passed the Connected Vehicle Security Act. Passage by the full Senate, as well as of a companion bill in the House of Representatives, are the next steps needed in order for the bill to become law.

Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) and Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) of the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), along with several colleagues, sent a letter to President Trump urging him to issue an Executive Order prohibiting seafood harvested by Chinese-linked vessels or processed in China from entering the U.S.

Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) of the House Select Committee on China and Congressman George Whitesides (D-CA) sent a letter to Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick urging him not to authorize American purchases of memory chips from Chinese companies.

The Trump administration filed its response to a request for a preliminary injunction in a case involving the Department of Defense's decision to designate a Chinese biotech company as a "Chinese Military Company."

In a legal opinion issued last week, the U.S. Department of Justice declared that as a result of the change in ownership of the U.S. version of the TikTok app, a 2022 law banning TikTok on government devices no longer applies.

In an order issued earlier this week, the EU General Court rejected a request from a Chinese wind turbine maker for suspension of a European Commission decision to request more information as part of a Foreign Subsidies Regulation investigation.

At the WTO Committee on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures meeting held in late April, China and various other WTO Members sparred over issues related to overcapacity, the level playing field, and transnational subsidies; at a different meeting by the same committee, there was a discussion of China's latest subsidy notifications that offered insights into the broad disagreement between China and the U.S. on Chinese subsidies.