Several high-profile state visits in May 2024 have led to a series of new sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) documents published by China's General Administration of Customs (GACC) last month.

Last week, China's Ministry of Finance announced that it would suspend tariff concessions for another batch of imports from Taiwan, as a follow-up on Taiwan's "discriminatory trade bans and restrictions on mainland products."

Today, China's Ministry of Commerce, China’s General Administration of Customs, and the Central Military Commission’s equipment development department jointly announced a decision to add certain equipment, software and technologies in the aerospace and aviation sector to the export control regime.

After five months of China's new export controls on graphite, its graphite exports are climbing back quickly, indicating a very limited trade impact of the new rules.

A trilateral meeting among Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol led to an agreement to elevate negotiations on a trilateral free trade agreement, as well as some bilateral mechanisms to revive trade and investment.

At today's press conference, the spokesperson for China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) offered comments on the new additions to the Unreliable Entity List, a new anti-dumping investigation on U.S. and EU plastics, and potential tariffs on gasoline-powered cars.

On May 22, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) announced that it would sanction twelve U.S. defense companies, including several units of General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin, and ten high-level executives of sanctioned companies.