Canada and Taiwan have completed their 10 month long negotiations on a foreign investment agreement, although the text has not yet been released and some "legal scrubbing" still needs to take place.

Today, China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) announced that it will extend a trade barrier investigation against Taiwan's import bans for another three months.

Senator James Lankford (R-OK) has introduced a bill that would use Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) as leverage to deter Chinese coercion and military aggression against Taiwan.

The political difficulties that arose in relation to appointing a Chair of the WTO's GPA Committee may be continuing in the context of appointments to the WTO's subsidy expert group.

Today, China's Customs agency announced that it would suspend mango imports from Taiwan, citing pest concerns. This is the same justification previously offered by Beijing for bans on Taiwanese sugar apples and wax apples, although the ban on sugar apples has been lifted.

The spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, Zhu Fenglian, said last week that her agency supports the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) investigation of Taiwanese trade barriers, with the potential result of the investigation being the suspension of preferential tariff treatment for some Taiwanese imports. In response

At yesterday's press conference, the spokesperson for China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) commented on the recent U.S. executive order that restricts outbound investment in China, and provided updates on the ongoing trade barrier investigation against Taiwan and China's export controls on gallium and germanium.