In the midst of the summit between President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump in Beijing, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent weighed in on a number of trade issues that are under discussion.

Last week, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) held a four-day hearing as part of its Section 301 investigation of Structural Excess Capacity and Production in Manufacturing Sectors.

Following up on earlier anti-dumping/countervailing duty (AD/CVD) cases against imports of Chinese solar products, both from China itself and from Chinese companies operating in various third countries, the U.S. solar industry has now accused Chinese companies of circumventing existing AD/CVD cases by selling through Ethiopia.

Yesterday, China followed up on an earlier request for consultations with a request that a WTO panel be established to hear its complaint about discriminatory measures adopted by India in the solar and information technology sectors.

In advance of President Trump's trip to China this week, U.S. lawmakers are continuing to ratchet up political pressure against allowing the sale of Chinese automobiles in the U.S. They are also moving to restrict Chinese purchases of U.S. farmland.

This past week, CTM covered the following issues. China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) issued a blocking order against U.S. penalties that had been imposed on some Chinese companies for violating U.S. sanctions related to trading in Iranian oil. This action marks the first invocation of China'

In a split opinion issued today, a two-judge majority on the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled that the surcharge imposed by the Trump administration under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 is inconsistent with the requirements of that statute.