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.

After months of negotiations, China and Ecuador signed a bilateral trade agreement last week. This makes Ecuador the fourth country in the Latin American region to have a trade agreement with China.

Last week, Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell traveled to China and met with his Chinese counterpart, Commerce Minister Wang Wentao, as part of the continued effort to ease tensions in Australia-China trade and foreign relations.

Last week, China's market regulator published a notice stating that Tesla had filed a plan to recall over 1 million vehicles sold in China between 2019 and 2023.

The U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) published reports on inspections of two accounting firms that audited 40% of the total market share of U.S.-listed companies audited by Hong Kong and mainland firms. The reports noted "unacceptable rates" of deficiencies, as the audit firms

After the news broke that the European Commission proposed to sanction multiple Chinese companies over their sales to Russia, several Chinese officials pushed back against this proposal at various events this week, and warned of taking "necessary measures" to protect Chinese firms.

Following up on a virtual meeting with his Chinese counterparts in February, and an invitation issued then to meet in person in China, Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell announced today that he was visiting China to discuss various trade issues with his Chinese counterparts.