As Chinese EV exports are facing the prospect of higher tariffs overseas, Beijing continues to solicit opinions on the potential for raising tariffs on cars with engines larger than 2.5 liters, with the most recent meeting last Friday.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni visited Beijing this week, where she talked about balancing bilateral trade and investment, and signed sectoral agreements in a number of areas, including electric vehicles and renewable energy.

A Chinese industry association and a major automaker criticized the European Commission's anti-subsidy investigation of Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) as being inconsistent with WTO rules. Criticisms include inflating the subsidy rate, a lack of transparency, an unusual sampling process, and requesting excessive information.

At the Aspen Security Forum this week, Alan Estevez, the Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security, spoke about U.S. chip export controls and the Commerce Department's investigation into connected vehicles.

China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) recently contacted Avanci, which owns patent pools, in relation to antitrust concerns. Even though there is no clear sign of antitrust violations, the company's practices have been controversial.

Yesterday, China and Germany signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Cross-Border Data Flow Cooperation, another step to mitigate regulatory obstacles on data transfer, which plays an critical role in the auto industry.

Starting in July, Türkiye will extend the 40% additional tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles to other kinds of vehicles, despite the fact that China has questioned the WTO-consistency of the tariff hike on various occasions.