This week, Chinese President Xi Jinping held meetings with African counterparts on the sidelines of the ninth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Summit (FOCAC). It was expected that these African leaders would seek more market access to China as well as more investment and technology transfer from China, and several deals

Last week, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced its preliminary determination in an anti-dumping duty investigation of paper plates from China.

Not surprisingly, China is pushing back hard against Canada's recently announced tariffs on Chinese EVs, steel, and aluminum, with actions at both the multilateral and unilateral level.

Last week, members of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party pressed the Biden administration to look into two drone makers with a connection to DJI and to place CATL on a Defense Department blacklist.

In August, China's General Administration of Customs (GACC) published the following regulatory documents as a domestic step to allow more food imports from the Solomon Islands, Vietnam, Honduras, and Tanzania, following high-level meetings and agreements.

A new IMF paper tries to quantify Chinese subsidies and their effects, and ties them to the debate on "overcapacity."

Following the Canadian government decision to impose tariffs on Chinese EVs, steel, and aluminum last week, the Canadian Marine Industries and Shipbuilding Association (CMISA) has called for tariffs on Chinese-built ships as well.