This past week, CTM covered the following issues.

In draft guidelines published by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and the Ministry of Finance, China is proposing rules requiring articulated industrial robots to meet a 70% domestic component-cost threshold and undergo key manufacturing processes within the nation to qualify as domestic products in government procurement.

China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) recently initiated two new anti-dumping investigations, one on chemicals and one on yarns, primarily targeting EU goods, and it also completed an expiry review on trade remedy measures on chemicals from the U.S.

Chinese regulators issued a series of documents formally implementing the consensus reached by the U.S. and Chinese leaders in September to extend the suspension of export controls, retaliatory tariffs, sanctions and port fees for another two months through January 2027.

CTM did a roundup of MOFCOM’s press conferences/press Q&As from the previous week.

The U.S. political fallout is continuing after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's resignation, as Congressional Democrats have begun the process of investigating the Trump administration's actions in relation to export licenses granted to Nvidia and the broader relationship between Huang and the Trump administration; and in an interview on CNBC, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer was asked about the situation with Huang and Nvidia, in particular regarding how U.S. export controls were applied to the company (he was also asked about China's compliance with the trade commitments it made to the Trump administration).

CTM also wrote that the recent emergence of national security scrutiny surrounding Huang may become a watershed moment for stricter U.S. export control legislation, with key lawmakers in both parties renewing calls for action, and long-stalled bills designed to tighten trade flows related to semiconductors gaining new momentum. 

With final determinations on both dumping/subsidization and injury now having been made by the relevant U.S. agencies, anti-dumping/countervailing duties on solar imports from three Asian countries are now in effect (transnational subsidies provided by China were at issue in two of these cases).

After receiving comments on its proposed further suspension of the Section 301 remedy in the investigation on China's practices in the maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sectors, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) is moving forward with a two month additional suspension.

There were two developments in court cases on the U.S. Department of Defense putting companies on the list of "Chinese military companies": in response to a court order, the Department removed biotech company WuXi AppTech from the list; and the Chinese company Novogene filed a lawsuit in U.S. court challenging its inclusion on the list.

With an APEC Leaders' meeting scheduled for next week, Canadian officials have been meeting with their Chinese counterparts, with a focus on financial issues.

At a recent European Parliament International Trade Committee meeting, the group of Members of the European Parliament who travelled to Beijing and Shanghai to meet with Chinese economic officials presented their perspectives on the trip.

The European Commission announced that it had "preliminarily found TikTok in breach of the Digital Services Act (DSA) for the so-called ‘rabbit hole effect' of its recommender system."