Over the weekend, China's Vice Premier He Lifeng and Germany's federal minister of finance Christian Lindner co-chaired the third financial dialogue in Frankfurt. The two sides made commitments on trade, investment, and regulatory cooperation.

Last week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc. "agreed to pay more than $26 million to resolve charges that it bribed Chinese government officials to obtain outdoor advertising contracts in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)."

Last week, Beijing issued a draft provision for cross-border data flows, potentially lowering the compliance cost for companies and waiving regulatory requirements for some data exports. The draft, however, is awaiting finalization, which could bring more changes.

Over the last several years, there have been a number of products from Australia that were subject to import restrictions by China. One of the lesser-known of these products was hay. Reports indicate that these restrictions have now been removed.

This past week, CTM covered the following issues. In China: * China-EU High-Level Trade and Economic Dialogue * White paper on China's vision for globalization * MOFCOM comments on various trade issues * Data on outbound investment * Auto industry responds to EU anti-subsidy investigation on EVs In the U.S.: * Updates on

A publication specializing in news about investment arbitration has reported that litigation over Chinese investments in Mexican lithium mining might be in the works after the Mexican government cancelled concessions held by a Chinese company's Mexican subsidiaries.

Today, China's Ministry of Commerce, National Bureau of Statistics and State Administration of Foreign Exchange released a report on 2022 China's outbound investment. They also updated FDI data over the first eight months of 2023.