Beijing announced today that it will resume imports of sugar apples from Taiwan. This is a mini-step toward the thawing of economic relations across the strait, although trade frictions over agricultural goods are broader and will require more time and effort to resolve.

On June 15, China's customs agency lifted decade-long bans on Polish and Belgian beef. The impact of the announcement on trade in these products remains an open question.

To implement Measures that will become effective tomorrow, China's cyber watchdog issued a Guideline on the procedure for using the standard contracts to export personal data.

As a follow up to the Xi-Macron meeting in April.

Recently, the Chinese government issued several drafts of mandatory national standards for automobiles, including on cyber security and management systems, as well as on data recording systems. One of the drafts touches on vehicle designs and settings that would allow cross-border data transfer.

As a follow up to the Macron-Xi meeting earlier this month, the Chinese government recently started the domestic process of allowing more French food imports, and moved ahead with the regulatory process for two French GI applications.

In February, China's Ministry of Commerce sanctioned two U.S. firms, Lockheed Martin Corporation and Raytheon Missiles and Defense, for their arms sales to Taiwan. Today the agency offered more specifics on the sanctions and the sanctioned executives.