Last week, a group of European Union member states issued a paper raising concerns about medicine shortages, and in that context criticizing dependence on China for inputs used in those products.

This past week, CTM covered the following issues. In China: * Trade and other cooperation with Myanmar * Industry opposition to Japanese export controls * Extension of anti-dumping duties on optical fiber * Journal article examines Chinese international investment agreements In the U.S.: * Democratic Senators call for competition with China * Republican Senators

Without providing further details, top trade officials in the United States and Taiwan both put a positive spin on the ongoing trade negotiations that were launched last summer. A Taiwanese official indicated that the trade talks are at the tail-end of the first phase of negotiations.

At a press conference yesterday, a group of Senate Democrats offered a range of ideas for competing with China economically and more broadly, indicating that legislation that reflects these ideas is coming, and that they would try to work with Republicans on these issues.

At a meeting of the WTO's Committee on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures on Tuesday, a number of issues were raised by other Members about China's trade policies and practices, in particular relating to transparency; and China brought up concerns with certain U.S. measures, including the

In a speech and subsequent conversation at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) last week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau emphasized Canada's important role in producing critical minerals for batteries and electric vehicles to ensure "resilience," and contrasted the cleaner and labor-friendly Canadian production with

During a visit to Myanmar this week, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang agreed with his counterpart to deepen cooperation in trade, agriculture and other economic development under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) so as to promote the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership.